NHL Players and eBay Canada unite to benefit Shoot For A Cure

eBay Canada and players throughout the National Hockey League announced a partnership that will see hockey memorabilia sold through eBay.ca to help raise funds for Shoot For A Cure, an awareness and educational program concerning spinal cord injuries in hockey.

Players throughout the National Hockey League have donated a wide range of items for the online sale including game-used and autographed jerseys and sticks (by greats like Curtis Joseph and Jaromir Jagr), as well as a variety of other signed memorabilia. Unique experiences, like golfing with NHLers or having phone conversations with pro hockey players, will also be listed for sale at various points during this ongoing fundraiser.

The online sale will begin on Friday, April 13 and feature 10 items per week throughout the playoffs. The sale will continue throughout the off-season and into the 2001-2002 NHL campaign, and hopes to raise money towards the Shoot for A Cure campaign.

Between 1982 and 1996, over 300 major hockey-related spinal injuries were reported (an average of 20 per year). Canada led those statistics reporting 252 injuries followed by Sweden with 54 and the U.S. with 36. During that same 15-year period, at least eight players died and 85 required wheelchairs indefinitely due to spinal injuries sustained while playing hockey. Of note, most of these injuries occurred to the cervical spine of players 16-20 years of age who were playing in supervised games.

Shoot For A Cure is a campaign designed to raise funds for spinal cord research while also raising the awareness of the magnitude of spinal cord injuries in hockey. The campaign is designed to raise awareness and educate the hockey community (players, coaches, trainers and families) of both the impact and incidence of spinal cord injuries in hockey.

In only four months, Shoot For A Cure has raised over $120,000.00 for spinal cord research through player donations and an initial donation of $30,000.00 by the National Hockey League Players’ Association’s Goals & Dreams fund this past December. It is expected that this relationship with eBay Canada will help generate even more funds for this NHL player initiated program.

Obviously this is a campaign that hits all of us pretty close to home, said Brad May of the Phoenix Coyotes, the Chair of Shoot For A Cure, a campaign jointly organized by the American Spinal Research Organization (ASRO) and the Canadian Spinal Research Organization (CSRO). Hockey is such a fast game that I think we sometimes forget how easily a spinal cord injury could occur in our game. That's why it's so easy for all of us to get involved with Shoot For A Cure. By providing items for the online sale, we are helping to raise funds to find a cure for paralysis.

What makes our online sale exciting and what makes it attractive to those interested in hockey memorabilia, is the fact that our items are provided to us directly from the players' hands, said Kurt Gengenbach, Director of Hockey Operations for Shoot For A Cure. Our ‘Player Reps’ have acquired and collected the memorabilia for us and the players are having their teammates sign the items. You can't guarantee a more authentic source of the items ... the NHL players themselves.

Shoot For A Cure also teamed up with another authentic source, not on the ice, but on the web – eBay Canada. We’re delighted to help Shoot For A Cure bring these unique items to Canadians nationwide, said Lorna Borenstein, General Manager, eBay Canada. We hope that Shoot For A Cure will score big in its efforts to raise funds towards curing paralysis and promoting safe hockey.

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About The Author:

Ashton Kapa is a successful author and publisher of http://www./. Find hockey apparel, bags, gloves, gear, sticks, skates, training aids and much more.

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NHL Players and eBay Canada unite to benefit Shoot For A Cure