Staal Foundation Open Catching on in Canada

When you grow up in a household with four brothers and a dad obsessed with sports, at some point, you just follow the crowd.
For Wild forward Eric Staal, the sports of choice were often hockey and golf. It makes for a symbiotic relationship for one week each year in the Staals' hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

For the fourth time, the Staal Family Foundation served as the naming rights sponsor for the Staal Foundation Open presented by Tbaytel, one of the emerging events on the Mackenzie Tour - PGA Tour Canada. The event is one of the offseason highlights for Eric, NHL brothers Marc of the New York Rangers and Jordan of the Carolina Hurricanes, and the youngest of the clan, Jared, who played professionally in Europe last season.
While the four-day golf tournament that ended Sunday garnered many of the headlines, the entire week includes a number of other events, including a ball hockey tournament, a celebrity pro-am, food booths, a women's day and more.
The week-long goal? To raise as much money for local charities as possible. This year, the Staal Foundation raised $271,500, all of which will stay in northwestern Ontario, benefitting the Northern Cancer Fund, the Smilezone Foundation, Camp Quality of Northwestern Ontario as well as the Staal Family Foundation.
In the four years the Staal Foundation has been the naming rights sponsor of the tournament, they have raised almost $850,000 for local charities.

"It's a great week," Eric Staal said. "It's a pretty nice chunk of money to give out to local charities up here."
The Staal Family Foundation's main focus is helping to support children and families that are battling cancer in both Canada and the United States.
It's a cause that hits close to home for Eric's wife, Tanya, who lost a sister to cancer.
"With four brothers and parents and wives, we wanted to narrow down [our focus] to something that meant a lot to our family," Eric said.
When the foundation was formed several years ago, it looked for ways to get involved in the local community. Scott Smith, a hockey and golf buddy of Eric's dad, Henry, put them in touch with the PGA Tour Canada and the rest is history.
"They're good people, great guys," Eric said of players on the Mackenzie Tour. "And they've been great partners to work with and what we're trying to accomplish. They've been very helpful along the way, so that's pretty cool."
Smith now serves at the tournament's executive director, a position that doesn't pay a salary. Inspired by the Staals and their willingness to give back to the community, he sees it as an opportunity to do his part in that regard.
"They're a family that just wants to do good by the community they grew up in," Smith said. "I really love what they do and their values as a family. They're very down to earth, just a nice family."
In addition to benefitting charities, the tournament and week-long event shines the spotlight on the town of Thunder Bay, one of the smallest cities the Mackenzie Tour visits during the season.
"It's a big deal, and the cool part is the community has really embraced the event," Eric said. "It's been well received and well supported, all the corporate people and the business people have really jumped on board to be supportive. It puts us on the map and really shows what Thunder Bay is all about."
In addition to the business community, Staal said the people behind the scenes who handle the organizing of the week as well as tournament volunteers have helped turn it into one of the premier events on the Canadian tour.
"We've been continuing to grow the amount that we've raised," Smith said. "We have more activities every year. It's been doing really well."
It helps having the Staal name attached to it. As one of the first families of Thunder Bay, the Staals are far from a passive naming rights sponsor, however. All four Staal brothers, their parents and their wives are a constant presence all week long, participating in events, shaking hands and chatting with fans and players.
The wives even spent a couple days baking cupcakes, then sold them at a booth during the week, all to help raise even more money.
"Being through it a number of times, I think we all realize that the more involved and the more present we are with the whole week, we can try and do our best to have it become impactful at the end of the week," Eric said. "There are a lot of different events people in our community have supported, so for us to be able to mingle with them and enjoy it with them, it's pretty cool, and it's definitely helped us raise the money we have the last four years."