The tournament is operated by the Andrea Henderson Memorial Fund, a volunteer-only 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization. Every penny of the proceeds from the tournament will support cancer research at the Kimmel Center. Since the tourney’s beginnings, Leap Towards A Cure has raised over $100,000 and counting for the Kimmel Center.
The fund and tournament is named in memory of Andrea “Froggy” Henderson, a former high school art teacher and varsity hockey team sponsor who lost her battle with breast cancer in April 2010, and whose death inspired the first Leap Towards A Cure tournament a few months later.
This year’s tournament has 300 adult hockey players on 20 teams across 5 divisions for a total of 35 hockey games. The championship games will be held on Sunday. The tournament also includes several public events.
Saturday, August 6 is the big Community Festival, which runs from noon – 6 PM and is FREE and open to the public (though donations are always accepted). Food will be provided by Jilly’s Bar and Grill and On The Border Columbia. Activities include a radar net to check your slap shot speed, targets to check your accuracy, and arts and crafts stations. New to the Festival this year is Bubble Soccer, courtesy of Collide-O-Sphere. You get in a giant inflatable bubble (think giant human hamster ball) and try to score a goal. It’s looks as ridiculous as it sounds, and is a whole bunch of fun. RMNB’s Rachel Cohen (hi!! that’s me!!) will be in attendance, tabling with her artwork at the festival.
(Rachel at 2015’s Leap Towards a Cure)
At 3:50 PM on Saturday there will be a Stick-N-Puck session as part of the Community Festival for all who wish to participate. The Stick-N-Puck a chance to bring your friends, young players, significant others, etc., out to the rink and skate in an open format, and you don’t have to be a current or previous participant to skate. Like all the other festival activities, it is 100% FREE.
So this Saturday, come on out to Laurel, enjoy some hockey and free fun, and support a great cause! If you can’t make it but still wish to donate, donations are accepted online.
