FEATURE: Schneider Continues to Give Back

Although he hails from Boston, Devils veteran goaltender Cory Schneider has made New Jersey his home over the last seven years. The state now holds a special place in his heart.

"I'm from Boston but both my kids were born in New Jersey, and we've been here, seven, eight years now so it feels more like home than in Boston has," said Schneider. "It's more like a visit when we go back to Boston. So we're proud of that and we're proud of playing for the Devils and being in Newark and being a part of New Jersey."

Due to the Schneider family's love for the New Jersey community, Cory and his wife Jill have been inspired to give back.

"I signed my extension and I think we just sort of looked around and said you know what this is such a great community," Schneider said. "It's a community that supports us and it's the place I work and live and how can we help, how can we help better the community."

"We didn't want to spend 6, 7, 8, 9 years here and leave and not have done anything to just help in any way we could."

Cory and Jill started Cory's Keepers five years ago as their way to contribute to the community. Through the program they host New Jersey based community groups for regular season home games. These groups have access to tickets behind the net, a t-shirt, and a post-game meet and greet. Over the last year, they were inspired to make some changes.

"Games are great, we want to keep that up to expose them to hockey and sort of reward them for doing such a great job and trying to help their community," explained Schneider. "But I think Jill and I felt that we could be doing more in terms of [reaching] day centers, community centers, YMCA groups, Special Olympics, things like that. So that's sort of where we've transitioned our focus with the help of the Devils and Investors Bank."

As a result, the Schneiders are working with organizations in the Newark community to help. They have worked with Covenant House, Special Olympics, Newark Community Street Team, and Newark Day Center and hope to continue with more.

"It's more targeted to actual programs and physical action and trying to raise money and donate money and just be proactive on that end. I think that it's more of the goal now, to go out and integrate ourselves into the community rather than having them come to us all the time."

With some plans on hold due to the end of the season and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Schneiders are looking to continue their plans in the near future and make an impact in New Jersey community.

"We've been working at trying to ramp it up again and do what we can remotely, or in person if possible, but I think that's our focus, is to kind of finish our time here," said Schneider. "We just really want to try to make the most of our time here and help anybody that we could."