Ice Flyers Extend Community Reach With BBBS Night
By Bill Vilona
Ice Flyers Correspondent
The Ice Flyers have seen how a player’s interaction with a needy youth can impact a life.
“I received an email a couple years ago from a mother, two months after her son met one of the players at a Big Sisters Big Brothers event, telling me how he has not stopped talking about it,” said Ice Flyers owner Greg Harris.
It’s why Harris is grateful to serve the past four years on the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Florida and provide a special night Saturday to bring awareness to the local non-profit organization, which has made a difference in countless lives within the Pensacola area.
The Ice Flyers will wear custom, decorative jerseys bearing the Big Brothers Big Sisters logo and colors in their 7 p.m. game Saturday against the Fayetteville Marksmen. It is part of a variety of fund-raising initiatives on Big Brothers Big Sisters Night at the Pensacola Bay Center.
The game Saturday is the middle of the Ice Flyers’ three-game homestand this weekend against Fayetteville. The teams will also play Friday night and Sunday afternoon at the Bay Center. The Ice Flyers (26-15, 6 OT losses) enter Friday’s game having won six consecutive games and nine of their last 11 games.
“Saturday is just really a big night to get the whole community involved and bring awareness to an organization that has grown dear to my heart,” Harris said. “What it stands for is to develop mentors for kids in Northwest Florida. I think the organization has an amazing mission to it.
“So, this will be a fun night, community initiative night. I look at this kind of event almost like why not do this? We have a great platform and I believe it is our responsibility to utilize that platform and give back in various ways.”
The Ice Flyers are donating $1 for every ticket sold to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Florida. Proceeds from an online and post-game jersey auction are going to the organization.
The other fund-raising events will be the “Chuck-A-Puck” contest at the second intermission, in-game raffles from various sponsor prizes, and other fan-services raffles.
“The jerseys have the logos, the capital B for Big Brothers Big Sisters on the front logo,” Harris said. “The jerseys have the organization motto ‘Defender Of Potential’ on the back of the neck. We designed to the jerseys with that mission in mind.“We will also have replica jerseys for people to buy. We’ll have contests going on throughout the game and facts about Big Brothers Big Sisters to bring more awareness.”
Harris said the local chapter has hundreds of youths served by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Florida. But there are also more than 100 kids on a wait list for a “Big” an adult mentor from the community willing to volunteer some time to make an impact.
“There is such a need,” Harris said. “And what we hope to make people aware of, it doesn’t require a whole lot of time to make a difference. Just a few minutes of conversation and connection can make a difference. We’ll have an information booth on the concourse to provide materials.
“We need people to sign up and go through the process and taking on a young boy or girl and making a difference. Everyone I talked to who has been involved as mentor is that you get to a point where you just grow to love (youths) like your own little brother or sister.”
The Ice Flyers have designed the night’s activities in a way to have the staff of Big Brothers Big Sisters and volunteers attending the game to simply enjoy the evening.
“So many of the fund-raising events that non-profit agencies like Big Brothers Big Sisters are involved with require the staff to do a lot of work,” Harris said. “We do all the design, we set up all the raffles, we staff mostly everything. We do everything so (organization) can just show up and have a great time.”
The event follows the Ice Flyers $5 ticket weekend March 11-12 which attracted more than 13,000 fans across the two games. The “Teddy Bear” toss for the first Ice Flyers goal in each game provided more than 2,500 toy stuffed animals to non-profit groups across Pensacola.
Recently, the Ice Flyers’ service-dog-in-training, Ranger, a black Labrador/Golden Retriever cross puppy, visited the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Florida agency on “Big Hang Out” where the pup instantly connected with everyone.
“Whatever we can do to be involved in this community, we are all for it,” Harris said. “I believe that is what having professional teams in the community can bring.”
