There were many beneficiaries in attendance, including CEO of Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, Denise Praill, and former Canucks Alumni scholarship recipient, Daniell Lange.
Canuck Place opened in 1995 for children between the ages of 0-19 with life-threatening illnesses. Praill said it's a humbling experience to attend these events seeing players who’ve been involved with Canuck Place for nearly 30 years.
“These are the players that actually helped create Canucks Place. We celebrate the alumni because they actually delivered this hospice to British Columbia. We’re the lucky stewards that have carried it on and it's just wonderful because they're still here with us, partnering all these years later,” Praill said.
There are currently 171 children and families in the Canuck Place program, and each family receives support for an average of six years and an additional three years for bereavement. Canucks Alumni purchased the family van for transporting children to and from activities, and support their recreation therapy program, direct patient care and contributed to their capital campaign for their second Hospice.
Canuck Place has a province-wide network care team of doctors, nurses and emergency services to help children who wish to remain at home while they are sick. The resources help ensure children can get out and share experiences with their families.
“We walk alongside a child and their medical journey, and as our medical director Dr. Hal Siden says, a child's job is to grow and learn. Children thrive and we're not going to take that away from them, we're here to support that journey. We do recreation therapy – a typical outing can be incredibly difficult if you're using power wheelchair accessibility – and our team helps make those memories and helps make that family time possible,” Praill said.
Lange applied for a Canucks Alumni scholarship while he was playing for the Express in 2015, and getting that help gave him the opportunity to attend and play hockey at Simon Fraser University.
“Going to post-secondary is a huge financial commitment, so to have that extra benefit from what they've given us through the Alumni Foundation is incredible,” Lange said.
The former Coquitlam Express hockey winger grew up a big fan of the Sedins, Markus Naslund and the West Coast Express line. He said it was a great afternoon and a walk down memory lane listening to the broadcast panel talk about the Canucks’ Stanley Cup run in 2011.
“I got chills hearing some of the stories because I lived through it, I was 15 when they had that run in 2011,” Lange said, adding, “It meant a lot to me as a fan watching the team, but to hear these guys, their stories and how proud they were of the team going through that, it was crazy.”
The Vancouver Canucks Alumni has raised over $5 million to support B.C. children and families.
To learn more about the Canucks alumni and their fundraising events please go visit: https://vancouvercanucksalumni.org/
