The last time Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»hosted a hockey game downtown, the event didnt exactly bring out the best in a lot of people.
A local non-profit group is expecting the opposite on Saturday when Granville Street will once be overrun with hockey enthusiasts.
Three makeshift ball hockey courts will be set up in 800-block near Robson Street for the second annual Five Hole for Food cross-country tour, a food drive launched last year by Simon Fraser University students who play street hockey in major cities to bring in donations for local food banks.
Five Hole founder Richard Loat admitted the chance to rehab his home citys somewhat battered and bruised image has been an added bonus to this years road trip, which will see him and teammates Victor Lo and Jonathan Buyco play in13 cities over 17 days.
I think it is important that we are sort of quote-unquote rehabbing Vancouvers image, said Loat, a fourth year communications major better known by his Twitter handle @Mozy19 and through his work as a blogger for Canucks.com.
Leaving town, we said to each other were the first ambassadors of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»since that black mark and having the opportunity to represent the city across the country has been tremendous. The first question everyone asks when they hear where were from is, Oh, how were the riots?
Once we push that aside, people perk up to the fact were a bunch of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»guys driving across the country helping not only our community but those across Canada.
But while helping to repair the citys rep in the eyes of the country is all well and good, it pales in comparison to the real goal of putting food on the plates of the less fortunate. While food banks need support year-round, that need is especially high during the summer months.
Loat, 22, said the group, which received assists from social media buzz, corporate sponsorship and a veritable small army of volunteers, has already raised nearly four times the amount of food from last years hastily organized tour that saw them play ball hockey in nine cities.
Last year was really just kind of a pilot, Loat said over the phone from Alberta. This year we set a goal of 20,000 pounds of food and now, heading into Calgary with four stops to go, weve already raised 23,000 pounds.
Five Hole for Food accepts online donations. Cash and non-perishable food items will be accepted in person at the hockey venue, where people are welcome to join in and play.
Loat expects the opening 1 p.m. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»street hockey game to draw a variety of politicos, minor celebrities and media personalities.
Neither Mayor Gregor Robertson nor Police Chief Jim Chu will make an appearance this year. The two faced off at a Five Hole for Food event in February to mark the anniversary of the 2010 Olympics.
As for Loat, hes looking to putting his own stick down again nearly three weeks after he dipped it into the Atlantic Ocean in a nod to another young and local athletic philanthropist, Terry Fox.
Were averaging something like four or five hours of sleep a night, if that, said Loat. Its been physically gruelling and mentally gruelling. Im pretty much living on adrenaline and Im expecting to crash pretty much the moment I pick up the ball in the last second of the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»game.
For more information, visit fiveholeforfood.com.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»is the final stop on the Five Hole For Food trans-Canada road trip and when Richard Loat, Victor Lo and Jonathan Buyco set up ball hockey rinks on Granville Street Saturday, they will already have surpassed their goal to collect 20,000 pounds of food for donation.
Join the boys as early as noon to watch the 1 p.m. game. Athletes from the Abbotsford Heat will be suited to skate the downtown pavement.
After the hockey, organizers are promising the tours biggest party yet. Tickets are $20 and dont forget those non-perishable food items for the Greater Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Food Bank Society.
