SCS scores cash thanks to hockey pros
Tiffany Mayer - SIMCOE REFORMER
Members of the Rising from the Ashes committee got to rub shoulders with some pretty big celebrities on Wednesday and collect a sizable donation in the process.
The Norfolk Pros handed Bob Foster, principal of Simcoe Composite School and head of Rising from the Ashes, a cheque for $50,000. The money is to be used toward the rebuilding of the SCS gymnasium, which was destroyed by fire last October. A youth has been charged with arson in relation to the fire.
Since that time, a group of SCS alumni and other community members have come together to form the Rising from the Ashes committee to raise money for a new gym.
Norfolk Pros, a charitable group comprised of local professional hockey players, is just one of many organizations that has dug deep into its pockets to help the high school.
Among those making the donation on Wednesday were SCS Sabres-turned-NHLers Dwayne Roloson and Rob Blake.
"I was really surprised at the time," Roloson said about hearing news of the fire.
"You don't expect something like that to happen. Fortunately, we were able to help out. High school - any school - needs a facility like that. Athletics really broadens students' horizons. They really need athletics."
The opportunity to have a school gym is important, Blake commented, even though he claimed not to have spent too much time in one while attending SCS.
"I was concentrating on school. I wasn't in the gym," the Colorado Avalanche defenceman joked.
The Rising from the Ashes committee set out to raise about $900,000 for a state-of-the-art triple gymnasium. The remainder of the $2.5 million needed to complete the new facility will be provided by insurance money and the Grand Erie District School Board.
Foster said the latest donation puts the committee within 20 per cent of its goal. Even though the group is close to its goal, the hardest work is yet to come.
"With any fundraising campaign, anyone will tell you the last 15 per cent is the hardest," Foster explained.
What's particularly remarkable about this latest donation is who it's coming from - local athletes who have moved on to storybook careers in big cities, garnering a great deal of celebrity along the way.
It would be easy to turn their backs on their high school or small hometown, but Blake, Roloson and their fellow NHL colleagues from Norfolk haven't forgotten their roots, Foster said.
"They still take the time and remember where they came from . . . and all the parents and community members who helped them out," Foster said.
"Some of these guys have won Stanley Cups. For a small community like this, that's pretty telling of the kind of support they've gotten over the years and for them to know that and to recognize that, that's particularly telling."
Tiffany Mayer (519) 426-5710 ext 140
e-mail tmayer@bowesnet.com