The Prince George Spruce Kings and their ties to the community extend well beyond the city limits.
The community-owned B.C. Hockey League club has shown throughout its 34-year history it cares about its fans throughout the region and on Saturday the team is sponsoring a health care fundraising initiative expected to reduce wait times for ear, nose and throat surgery for northern B.C. residents from the current 18 months to nine months.
The Spruce Kings are teaming up with the Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation and the Vanderhoof and District Co-operative Association to raise money at Saturday's game against the Chilliwack Chiefs at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. The money will be given to St. John's Hospital in Vanderhoof to buy $3,300 worth of surgical equipment to perform ear, nose and throat procedures.
The new equipment will double the capacity of the hospital to perform such surgeries as septoplasty and rhinoplasty to two procedures per day.
"It's any kind of nasal surgery and lots of older teens and young adults are common recipients of that because of injuries, one of them being hockey(-related)," said Annette Stevens, donor relations manager for Spirit of the North. "It can repair the damage or it's to correct nasal passages or issues that people were born with. In both cases that person will experience significant difficulty breathing through their nose and this surgery will alleviate that so it's really important."
Among the surgical tools the money will be used to buy are a speculum and cartilage crusher. Stevens said the new equipment will alleviate wait times for Prince George residents and patients in surrounding communities willing to travel to Vanderhoof to have their surgery.
The Treasure Cove Casino has already donated $1,000 to the cause. The Spruce Kings will give proceeds from their 50-50 raffle and will set up a table in the arena concourse to collect money during the game on Saturday.
"We're hoping to get a good crowd and if we don't get the whole amount we're a good portion of the way towards it," said Spruce Kings business and marketing manager Lu Verticchio. "This is a way for our team to give back to the larger community. We get a lot of support from the outlying community for our mega 50-50 draw and our show home lottery."
After a 5-3 loss Wednesday on home ice to the Vernon Vipers, the Spruce Kings will try to get back to their winning ways tonight in the first game of the doubleheader against Chilliwack. The Chiefs (26-9-5-0) rank second in the Mainland Division, 15 points ahead of the Spruce Kings (19-17-2-2). Each team has 18 games left in the regular season.
The teams have so far split the season series. On Oct. 20, the Spruce Kings beat the Chiefs 4-1 and on Dec. 1 Chilliwack beat Prince George 3-2. Both games were played at RMCA.
Centre Brett Mennear continues to lead the Spruce Kings in scoring and ranks third in the BCHL scoring race with 57 points, including 20 goals. Chiefs forward Jordan Kawaguchi is not far behind in fifth place with 54 points, having scored 26 goals.
