Borowiecki takes pride in his hometown's response to tornado

As Ottawa continues to deal with the effects of last Friday's devastating tornado, Sens defenceman Mark Borowiecki has taken a lot of pride in his hometown's response to the relief efforts.

Borowiecki, who lives just west of Canadian Tire Centre and only a few minutes down the road from one of the most devastated parts of the area, said that he and his wife Tara were lucky to have avoided any major damage on Friday evening.
"We were pretty fortunate," said Borowiecki. "It was a nasty storm that whacked us two separate times and we lost power for a while but considering what happened to the people in Dunrobin, we were definitely very lucky and blessed."
The Ottawa Senators responded to the tragedy by starting a campaign on GoFundMe to help benefit the ongoing relief efforts and the Ottawa Senators Foundation pledged to match the first $25,000 raised (that guarantee has since doubled TWICE to $100,000 due to the overwhelming response in the first two days).

For Borowiecki, it's just another example of how generous the residents of the Ottawa-Gatineau region can be when their community needs them most.
"I think it speaks to the people that we have in this community and the pride that we have in our city," he said. "It's easy to go around and say that Ottawa is a great place to live but in times like these, it's an opportunity to prove it."
"We've got big city amenities but Ottawa definitely has a small town feel and I think most people that grew up here or moved here would tell you that," Borowiecki continued. "There aren't too many major North American cities where you can drive 20 minutes in any direction and find yourself out in the country. We're all pretty close-knit so when a disaster strikes a part of our city like it did to Dunrobin and Gatineau, we rally behind that as a city."
Tweet from @taraboro: Please consider donating if you can and haven���t already! https://t.co/WLfIV2TCVc
Following the city's fantastic response in the days after the disaster, Borowiecki shared that the team is hoping to help support the relief efforts.
"The more people we get rallying around this, the better," said Borowiecki. "We have some plans in our locker room to hopefully be a part of that and we want to show our fans that we want to be an active part of this community. As someone who grew up in Ottawa, it definitely gives you a sense of pride seeing that."
"We're going to try and do something as a group here to help as much as we can," he said. "Right now, I think it's important to try and let those people who were affected collect their lives and start to put things back together as best they can and then offer our support when it's needed."
For fans looking to make contributions to the tornado relief efforts, please consider making a donation to our
GoFundMe campaign here
.