GYF Newsletter 2/19/24
week of February 19, 2024
Save The Dates….
February 22: Sledwings vs Griffins Game
February 22: World Juniors practices cancelled!
February 24: GYF Blood Drive- SIGN UP TODAY!
February 24: Sub Orders Due!
February 25: Norris Division Charity Classic Games
March 3: Patrick Division Charity Classic Games
March 9: Sub pick up @ the rink
March 10: Norris Move Up Game- by invite only!
March 16: Last Day of the Season // Star Wars Game
March 19-21, 26 & 27: Year End Banquets
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Quick Reminders
- World Juniors practices are cancelled this Thursday!
- Sledwings vs Griffins Game is this Thursday!! Stop by and show your support for our Sledwings players
- The Community Room will not be open this Saturday until after the blood drive. Readers can find Ms. Julie E. to turn in their reading slips throughout the day.
- Sub orders are due this Saturday! Pick up is March 9th.
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Kevins Corner
- 1st place: Tryson Smallegan ($100 gift certificate)
- 2nd place: Zach Koets ($50 gift certificate)
- 3rd place: Adalynn Smallegan ($25 gift certificate)
- Random Drawing winner: Andrew Seif ($25 gift certificate)
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Give Blood, Save Lives!
Did you know that 1 blood donation can save up to 3 lives!? Together, we can make a difference. Sign up today to donate in our annual blood drive & be a lifeline for transplant patients, trauma victims & others in need. We currently have very few people signed up to give blood in our upcoming blood drive!
Sign Up Today!
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Year End Survey & Registration
If your player will be coming back to play with us next year- registration is now open! If your player will NOT be coming back, please reach out to Nichole ASAP!
This year the registration process will be done a little bit differently. All families will need to fill out a brief (approx. 2 minute) year end parent survey about how this season went before being able to complete your player registration in TeamSnap. All answers are submitted to us anonymously.
Please click the button below to start your survey. After you hit the submit button on the survey, you will be directed to a page with the link to register your player on TeamSnap. If you have any issues, please let Nichole know (communications@griffinskids.org)
Survey & Registration
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Volunteers Needed!
Scoreboard/Announcers- We are in need of Announcers and someone to run the scoreboard for every game this week. If you are able to help- please sign up! We can not have games without people stepping up to help in this way. (Sign up here)
Refs- We are in need of refs for the following games:
2/17: We are in need of refs for our Campbell (1:40 & 3pm) and Norris (4:20 & 5:40pm) games this week! Please sign up if you are able to help! (Sign up here)
As we are getting closer to playoffs, we would love to be able to have 1 adult ref on the ice for our Adams and Campbell games! If this is something you can help with, please sign up or let Nichole know!
50/50 Volunteers- We are in need of quite a few volunteers still this month to sell 50/50 at Griffins home games. All volunteers receive 3 tickets each as well as a parking pass. We lose money if we do not have all 6 spots filled for each home game! Please sign up if you are able to help! (Sign up here & scroll down to February)
Star Wars Night Volunteers- In addition to our normal 50/50 volunteers, we need 18 volunteers to assist with the Star Wars actors/characters at the Star Wars Night Griffins Game on March 16th. Puck drop is scheduled for 8pm. Your time commitment would be from 5:45pm – end of the game. (Sign up here)
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Star Wars Tickets Are Here!!!
Grand Rapids Griffins Tickets to the March 16th Star Wars Game. This is a game you don’t want to miss- your favorite Star Wars characters will be all around the concourse during the game interacting with fans!
(Get Star Wars Tickets Here)
The Griffins Youth Foundation has 3 game dates each year that we have to pre-purchase sections for. In return- it is expected that every player purchase or sell 5 tickets (even if you are a season ticket holder!) at a discounted price. Part of the ticket sales go back to our organization! Since we have to pre-purchase these tickets, if we do not sell all of them, we lose money!!! Our last game, we had over 200 unsold tickets and many families who had not purchased or sold their tickets yet.
If you unable to make it to the Star Wars game this year, we do have a small number of physical flex tickets available! Please see Julie G for those. (Get Flex Tickets Here)
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Charity Classic Games
This Sunday our Norris Division will compete in the Charity Classic games. Games are at 1pm and 2pm.
The winners of the games played the day before will play in the championship game at 1pm. The losers of the games played the day before will play in the consolation game at 2pm.
What are the Charity Classic games?
We at the Foundation have the privilege of playing hockey for free. We enjoy ample support from the community to make that happen and want to do our part in giving back. By hosting the Charity Games this allows us to open the conversation with our children about giving back to others!
We would like to encourage you to help your player find a way for them to participate in giving back during our Charity Games Event this year! This could be something as simple donating one of their weekly allowances, doing extra chores for the family and donating the money, or collecting pop cans! We want the children to be involved in giving back!
Start saving up that spare change because starting this week Penny Wars begins! We will also be doing a month long pop can drive! All proceeds will be going to benefit the VanDyke family. For those of you who do not know Coach Shaune, he is one of our Patrick Division coaches, where his son Jaxon also plays. Coach Shaune is always one of the first to step up and offer to help whenever we need it. On October 13th of this year the VanDyke family’s world came crashing down when their son Konnor was diagnosed with Metastatic Medulloblastoma Cancer. Even with everything their family has been going through, Coach Shaune has continued to show up for our GYF players weekly and even came to the rink bright and early one Saturay morning before winter break to “help Santa” by dressing up and skating with the younger kids! We want to help support the Vandyke family any way that we can! Lets show them that GYF is more than just a hockey program, we are a family!
Here is a little more information about Konnor’s journey so far, provided by the VanDyke family:
Friday October 13th is a day that has become etched into our entire being: our world came crashing down in a matter of seconds. Our brilliant, resilient, smart, kind-hearted, funny, brave, baby of our family- Konnor was diagnosed with Metastatic Medulloblastoma Cancer. This is an extremely aggressive pediatric cancer that had started out as a brain tumor and had spread throughout his entire spine through his spinal fluid. His symptoms started as strong migraine headaches and vomiting 5-6 days mostly in the morning around mid-September. Doctors ordered emergency surgery for a drain to be inserted to drain fluid off the brain that was blocked by the tumor. An additional surgery was needed a few days later to remove the tumor off the brain stem. Surgery cannot be done on the spine. Konnor was released to go to Mary Free Bed for rehab November 2nd. He spent seven full days at Mary Free Bed and was released to come home on November 9th. He started Chemo and Radiation on November 13th, 5 days a week for 6 full weeks. Konnor has been in a lot of pain and has spent a great deal of time in the hospital during his first round of chemo, but was able to be home for Christmas and New Years! He had a 6 week break and the next round of Chemo starts back up February 7th with additional drugs added. This treatment plan will still be 5 days a week for 6 months. Our journey is LONG, but Konnor is a fighter, and we will fight for him on the days he feels he has no fight left. Konnor is 15 years old and attends Comstock Park High School. #KONNORSTRONG
Pop cans can be brought to the rink all month long, just stop by Ms. Eileen’s table and she will direct you where to put them. Milk jugs are out now! *update to Penny War Rules- penny’s and paper $ count as positive points, silver coins count as negative points!*
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Save The Date! Year End Banquets
The end of the season is fast approaching, please find below the dates for the end of the year banquets. More specific details to come within the next couple of weeks, but in the mean time, please save the dates!
Olympian and World Juniors Divisions will have a year end part at the rink on March 16.
Banquet information: All of the following divisions will have their banquets in the evening at the same location & the same time each day (TBA).
- Patrick Division: Tuesday, March 19
- Norris Division: Wednesday, March 20
- Girls Division: Thursday, March 21
- Campbell Division: Tuesday, March 26
- Adams Division: Wednesday, March 27