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 Message from the Chair
Kids for Kids Hockey 27th Annual Tournament
Sponsored by: Tourism Kingston And The Dairy Farmers of Ontario
It is hard to believe it’s the 27th annual KIDS FOR KIDS HOCKEY TOURNAMENT! Over 10,000 hockey players and family will be coming here this weekend!
HOW WE GOT STARTED 27 YEARS AGO
The very first Charity hockey tournament was started with a band of volunteers in 1998 to raise money and awareness to the plight of thousands of local people who had just gone through one of the biggest disasters ever… the Eastern Ontario ICE STORM! We called that tournament, Storm on Ice!
The KIDS FOR KIDS HOCKEY TOURNAMENT was started the very next year and is always scheduled for late March. The annual tournament is meant to be the last hockey event of the year for most if not all of the participants. They are coming from far and near to participate in the Kids for Kids hockey tournament from ages U9 to U18. Both rep teams and house league teams are eligible.
“The timing of this tournament is just right”, says chair Garry McColman, “ Having been a father, coach and manager of many hockey teams over the past 55 years, I can tell you how special the last tournament of the year is to these kids and their mom and dads. Especially the house league teams that don’t get to travel and play new teams much during the season. It’s a lot of fun for them over the 3-day tournament that’s for sure!”
The end result of this hockey tournament will be donations in the amount of over $60,000 to our 2 major benefactors, BGC Southeast, ( The Boys and Girls Club), and the pediatric NEO NATAL unit of The Kingston Health Sciences Centre!
This year, our 27th, we are expecting 180 teams in Kingston. “We have managed to get all the ice time we needed for the 180 teams we will host for the tournament.
Tournament ice and schedule chairman, Steve Walker, says of this year’s tournament, “The city of Kingston and the local minor hockey associations have cooperated fully with our requests for ice time. We want to thank all of them for this…. It shows how a very busy city of minor sports can come together and back this annual event. Kids for Kids would not be able to host 180 teams and play 250 plus games without that cooperation”. Kids for Kids would like to thank the KAMHA for sanctioning our tournament through the OMHA each year. Without their sanctioning we could not host this hockey tournament!
KIDS FOR KIDS is quick to point out the fantastic job of pulling the tournament together by the team that does all the work from September to March.
No fund-raising event can reach their goal without a small army of dedicated volunteers and KIDS FOR KIDS is no different. We have over 40 people who come every year to give of themselves for KIDS FOR KIDS weekend, from our headquarters to all 10 hockey pads, the runners that go from rink to rink for pick ups and deliveries, and the people who oversee all the teams needs while they are here in Kingston. It is a fantastic team effort, and no event can be successful year after year without those volunteers.
So, again, thank you so much for coming to our beautiful city of Kingston for the weekend…. Good Luck… Have Fun!!
The KIDS FOR KIDS committee thanks all volunteers and all our participants for making this 27th in 2025 another success! !
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