Wildcats hold ‘Stick it to Cancer’ event

The Dodge County Wildcats held their fourth annual “Stick it to Cancer” event on Saturday afternoon in an effort to raise funds for the Eagles Cancer Telethon. This year’s event generated $2,500 worth of donations and was presented to the telethon on Saturday night.

To raise the funds, fans were able to purchase raffle tickets for a variety of gift baskets that ranged from artwork to lottery tickets. They also were able to purchase luminaries that they could inscribe “in memory of” and “in honor of” onto.

Prior to the Wildcats’ game against LeSeur/Henderson, players from both teams took the ice and formed the shape of a ribbon while holding candles. The luminaries were also lit up along the boards in respect to those who have lost their lives and are currently battling the disease.

The battle against cancer is one that strikes home for the Wildcats program since former  player Byran Knesel founded the event in honor of his grandfather, who is a leukemia survivor. The Wildcats also lost former teammate Alex Johnson to cancer in 2009 and current Dodge County youth hockey player Nick Westphal is a survivor of stage two Infiltrating Astrocytoma.

“It seems like everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer,” Dodge County co-head coach Chris Ernest said. “Our players may be ‘just kids’ but they understand that this is different. There’s a problem and  they are helping out with no thought of getting something for themselves.”

Ernest also said that the cause has taken a year-round initiative for the team.

“They did a fundraiser earlier in the year, “Ernest recalled. “They could have done anything that they wanted with the money, but they decided to add it to the money raised at the game. I’m proud of each of them.”

After this year’s total, the event has generated $6,100 toward the Eagles’ cancer telethon in the four-year history of the event.