Grande Prairie Athletics donate to St. John Paul II families for Christmas, L-R: (#55 Brendan Jay, Danielle Campbell, #18 Brenden Kwiatowski, Shamus Campbell, #8 Jordan Bartlett)

By Erika Rolling

Season of Giving

Grande Prairie Athletics help four local families at Christmas with cash donation

Dec 20, 2022 | 12:30 PM

The spirit of Christmas is alive and well in Grande Prairie, with many donations flooding in to families and organizations this month.

The Grande Prairie Athletics have decided to join in on giving back to the community and spreading the Christmas cheer this year with players, coaches, and the rest of the team pooling together funds to help four struggling families have a brighter holiday season.

The men’s hockey team decided to reach out to local school; St. John Paul II Catholic School to select four families to be blessed with the generous cash donation.

General Manager of the Athletics Mike Rappel says it was an idea from trainer Dave Campbell to get out and support the community.

“We got all the players together and everybody put in a few dollars of their own and the team topped it up to make it a nice big round number.”

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He says the choice to choose families from St. John Paul II, came from a number of connections with players and coaches being familiar with people and children that attend or work there.

The school does run a hamper program of its own for their students and families to support during Christmas, Rappel says “here’s something we can do to help with presents, the turkey, food… whatever it takes, here’s a donation to take that stress off their plate so they can concentrate on enjoying family time at Christmas.”

Rappel says the team wants to keep the dollar amount they pooled together under wraps but says “there are a few zeroes behind it.”

He says everybody associated with the team put in money and the team lead rounded up the total to the nearest thousand-dollar mark to make it even.

The A’s have one game before a holiday break on Thursday, December 22, in Valleyview taking on the Jets. Puck drop is 8:30 p.m. at the Polar Palace.