| Written by Catholic Register Staff,
|
Views : 720  |
Favoured : 44 |
 Honorary campers Lauren Pavlichenko, front left, and Alex Girardi pose for a shot with Hamilton CYO Celebrity Dinner honorary chair Joe Sardo and chair Isabelle Lanza. (Photo courtesy of Hamilton CYO) They were also at the gala at the Hamilton Convention Centre to rub shoulders with former and current pro athletes, such as retired National Hockey League star Dave Andreychuk and Mike Morreale and Rob Hitchcock, former members of the Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League.
All three men are Hamilton natives and they were joined by almost 50 fellow athletes, not to mention media and political celebrities, to support CYO’s work among poor, underprivileged and disabled youth in the area. Now in its 22nd year, the CYO Celebrity Dinner raises a significant portion of the money needed each year to send families and their children to camp. This year’s dinner raised about $77,000.
“I’m a product of Camp Marydale and Camp Brebeuf,” Andreychuk told the crowd, referring to CYO’s flagship summer camp programs.
Andreychuk gave the keynote speech of the evening, regaling the audience with the highlight of his life — winning the Stanley Cup. Though he had been a star player for the Buffalo Sabres, the Toronto Maple Leafs and other teams over 20 years, he had never been part of a Stanley Cup-winning team. It wasn’t until he joined Tampa Bay Lightning that he was able to help win a cup in 2004. He retired in 2006.
He urged the audience to help CYO help other young boys and girls to reach their own potential, regardless of the obstacles standing in their way.
For 50 years, the CYO has run athletic and other ministries to youth, along with the summer camps. According to CYO officials, it was among the first in Ontario to integrate children with special needs into its camp programs.
According to CYO executive director John Spatazzo, Camp Brebeuf is a summer residential camp near Rockwood, Ont. Camp Marydale is a dawn-to-dusk program that offers all the fun of traditional summer camp, but without overnight accommodation.
Camp Marydale was once based near Puslinch Lake, outside Cambridge, Ont., but was closed in 2004 due to water quality and other problems. The CYO is currently preparing to launch a public campaign to raise funds to build a new Marydale Park, a completely accessible community park on 14 hectares in southern Hamilton.
The CYO also runs athletic programs in basketball, volleyball, flag football, cross-country and track-and-field for children in Grades 1-8, with some 30,000 participants a year. There is also ongoing support for youth ministry for parishes in the diocese of Hamilton.
Spatazzo said other CYOs still exist across Canada, but none offers the kind of wide-ranging programs and support for youth maintained by CYO in Hamilton diocese.
Recommend this article...
|
(0 vote)
