For the 7th year, the Gardens Ice House in Laurel is hosting the Leap Towards a Cure hockey tournament from August 3-7, raising money for cancer research, treatment, and education at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD.

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.