The Canucks are ready for one of their signature fundraising events of the year.
The funds raised at Dice and Ice support the Canucks for Kids Fund (CFKF) whose beneficiaries provide resources to support children’s health and wellness and include minor hockey and education programs.
The core beneficiaries of CFKF include the Canucks Autism Network, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, and BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Executive Director of the Canucks for Kids Fund, Alex Oxenham says it’s a major event of the fundraising season.
“This is the biggest event on our calendar each year, and it's a way of celebrating the Fund, our beneficiaries, and all the wonderful people that support the Canucks for Kids Fund including the donors, partners, players, our owners and management and of course the fans – because anyone from anywhere in the world can bid on our online auction. It’s a really powerful night for people to come together to raise money for a good cause,” Oxenham said.
Involving the rookies in the program is always a favourite and each year there is a speaker who shares their experiences with one of the beneficiaries. This year, a mother who has two daughters will be sharing her experience with BC Children’s Hospital.
All the players are involved in the gala and are part of the production working as dealers at the casino games, put baskets together for online auctions, and helping emcee the event.
“They really step up and rise to the occasion and add their own energy and enthusiasm for it. It's great to see them have fun with it,” Oxenham said.
Canucks’ defenceman Tyler Myers looks forward to working the event with his teammates and interacting with the sponsors and donors.
“It's great to get all the guys together with a big event like that to give back to the kids and to know that nights like that can really help out,” Myers said.
“I was at the blackjack table last year and I had fun being the dealer. The year before I was a roulette dealer and that was fun too. Got to be on the other side of it - house always wins,” he laughed.
Myers helped produce the concept for the online auction basket and credits his wife, Michela, for doing the legwork to put the Myers’ Ultimate Party Host Basket together. The basket includes a scotch, decanter, fudge-flavoured whiskey, and charcuterie board.
“A big inspiration for the basket was that my dad is a big scotch guy, and he loves playing the guitar, so we thought a guitar decanter was a perfect gift for him and the Dice and Ice gift basket, so it worked out for both. Hopefully there's some other lovers of music and scotch that would enjoy a gift like that,” Myers said.
Due to the generosity of sponsors and donors last year, the event raised over $1,000,000 and they’re hoping to raise more than that this year. This year, one of the big-ticket items to bid on in the live auction is a road trip with the team. For a bit of Dice and Ice lore, one of the highest bids in the live auction was in 2011, when the Olympic Torch signed by the 2010 Canadian men’s hockey team went for $385,000.
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Pius Suter put a special Swiss touch on his basket up for auction.
“It’s a little Swiss chocolate starter package,” said Suter. “It’s a bit of dessert wine in there too because what goes better with chocolate? I had to hit a few spots to find certain kinds, but it ended up being a good mix in there.”
Last year was Suter’s first with the Canucks and the Dice & Ice experience stuck out as one of his favourite events of the season. Suter wants to be back as the dealer on the roulette table like he was last year and is very thankful for the generous donors who raised over a million dollars at last year’s event.
“It is a lot of money gets raised and it goes to good places,” said Suter. “It's obviously a nice event and people really care about the team and also the community and you can tell that there is just a lot of excitement around it."
When asked which of his teammates would make the best auction basket, Suter joked that it would probably be easier to pick who would make the worst but then ended up choosing Filip Hronek’s golf basket.