NEWS RELEASE: MINERS FOR CANCER RAISES OVER $80,000 WITH HOCKEY TOURNAMENT

(L to R) Jay Mancini (Controller/General Manager Mid City Mortorsports), Phil Perras (Miners for Cancer Board Member), Mike Buckner (1st Place Prize Winner) and Wayne Tonelli (Miners for Cancer President/Co-Founder).

Visit the Miners for Cancer: Digging for a Cure website: http://minersforcancer.ca/

Sudbury, February 18, 2014 – Miners for Cancer has done it again. Their annual Allan Epps Memorial Hockey Challenge sponsored by Sandvik that took place January 23-26th at the T.M. Davies Community Arena raised over $80,000. Funds raised will go towards cancer research, patient care and equipment in Northern Ontario.

“This has been our most successful fundraising event to date,” said Wayne Tonelli, President, Miners for Cancer, “and we will keep on fundraising for cancer research, equipment and patient care as long as cancer keeps affecting our community.”

To help with fundraising efforts, Miners for Cancer held a raffle draw and throughout the weeks leading up to the hockey challenge, board members and participating hockey players took part in selling tickets. The draw took place on Saturday, January 25th, and the winners were:

1st Place 2013 Polaris RZR 800 (donated by Technica Mining Group & Mid City Motorsports)
Mike Buckner, Sault Ste Marie

2nd Place Kubota RTV-500A (donated by Tracks & Wheels)
Bob Piatkowski, Naughton

3rd Place SAMSUNG 55” LED TV (donated by Bianco’s)
Randy Ouimet, Sudbury

The solely volunteer based group that started in 1996 has since organized annual inter-mining industry hockey tournaments, golf tournaments and galas that have enabled workers from various mining organizations to get together in a social environment outside the workplace while at the same time raising much needed funds for a cause so near and dear to the community’s heart.

For more information, contact:

Amanda Brosseau
Miners for Cancer, Vice-President, Marketing & Communications
(705) 682-5454
(705) 662-9791
amanda.brosseau@vale.com

 

Backgrounder

The group started in 1996 when Allan Epps, then a General Foreman at Vale’s Frood Mine, and his best friend Wayne Tonelli, then a General Forman at Vale’s Garson Mine (now retired), began to organize inter‐mine and inter‐office hockey and baseball games as a way to get workers together in a social environment outside the workplace.

The games soon evolved into a small league and then a tournament, for which participants had to pay a small fee. Soon, extra funds started accumulating, so Epps and Tonelli decided to donate the extra funds to charity. Since cancer is a disease that had touched every participant’s life in some way, it was decided that the funds would be donated to cancer research, equipment and patient care in Northern Ontario.

Epps passed away in 2005 after a motorcycle accident, but Tonelli decided to continue to lead Miners for Cancer as a registered charitable organization in memory of his best friend.

Today, the hockey tournament is recognized as the ‘Allan Epps Memorial Hockey Challenge’ and Miners for Cancer has expanded into golf tournaments, curling bonspiels and galas. To date, this group of 8 individuals has raised more than $750,000 for the cause.

The Board of Directors & its members who pride themselves on solely being volunteer based, continue to work towards improving cancer care by funding innovative research that is making an impact on the world stage. These extremely motivated individuals have successfully fundraised hundreds of thousands of dollars that contribute directly towards finding a cure and improving the lives of those living with cancer through new equipment and vital patient care.

Without the work of Miners for Cancer, nationally competitive research programs would not exist at the Northeast Cancer Centre.

Since its inception, Miners for Cancer has worked with and continues to be supported by over 50 separate organizations and groups including mining companies, mining supply & service providers, labour unions, local non‐mining related businesses, as wells as local secondary and post‐secondary schools ‐ all of whom continue to be generously committed to Miners for Cancer’s cause – digging for a cure.

Visit the Miners for Cancer: Digging for a Cure website: http://minersforcancer.ca/