With a pair of helmets, the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins have made sure to enrich the lives of a pair of coaches who lost their lives in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.
At their sportsman’s dinner Thursday night, the Bruins topped off their previous fundraising by auctioning off a pair of firefighter’s helmets specially designed for the auction.
The helmet was donated by Jim Gardiner, a firefighter in Burnaby B.C. and scout with the Bruins.
“I was on the phone with his daughter and they’d sent personal donations in and they made sure we got them,” said Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood. “Then we got talking and also the Bunaby fire department these and designed them and I mentioned to her that we had our event and I knew it was too soon to get the helmets air brushed and sent here for that but… after she hung up on me I got a phone call in about an hour from the artist that the Burnaby Fire Department saying he’d be putting them in front of anything else he had in line and sure enough they showed up here (earlier) this week, and that’s the donation.”
At the live auction, the first helmet was sold to someone for $7,500. He donated it back to the auction and it was auctioned again for $2,500. The second helmet, which hadn’t arrived by the time the banquet started, was auctioned for another $2,000.
Those donations bumped the Bruins’ total donations up near $100,000 and that money will go directly to the families of head coach and general manager Darcy Haugan and assistant coach Mark Cross.
“It’s tremendous and the generosity of the people in the crowd tonight to do what they did,” Lewgood said. “It’s a testament to the character of the community.”
Both Haugan and Cross had strong Estevan ties, having either played or coached here. It was a relationship not forgotten by people in Estevan.
“For that to be what it was is a testament to what our community is about,” Lewgood said. When it comes to somebody in need or somebody who is suffering, our community always steps forward… and those families haven’t asked for anything and they’re going to be extremely grateful for the generousity.”
