GYF Newsletter 3/4/24
week of March 4, 2024
Save The Dates….
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: Girls Division Year End Banquets
March 20: Norris Division Year End Banquets
March 21: Patrick Division Year End Banquets
March 26: Campbell Division Year End Banquets
March 27: Adams Division Year End Banquets
August 26: GYF Golf Outing
October 1-17: Equipment Fittings (by Division)
November 2: Season Starts!
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Playoff Schedules
Playoffs officially start for all divisions (Adams & higher) this week. This is the “hot time” of the year. Players are fired up about the tournaments, coaches are talking about “winning the little battles” for the puck, playing “hard” and to “not take a shift off”. Every call or non-call by our refs are hyper-scrutinized by players, coaches and the parents/spectators. It is competition at it’s best and worst.
Be positive with your players, their coach/team and the opposing team’s players and our refs as well!! Remember, our refs are all parent and player volunteers! That young ref may be your player or the player of a parent standing next to you. Use a light touch and remember why we are all here!
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Registration Closing Soon!
If your player will be coming back to play with us next year- registration closes on 3/16! 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 link 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:
3/9: We are in need of refs for our Campbell (1:40pm and 3pm) & Norris Divisions (4:20 & 5:40pm) games this week! Please sign up if you are able to help! (Sign up here)
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 March)
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
We still have a small amount of tickets left to the Grand Rapids Griffins 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)
If you unable to make it to the Star Wars game this year, we do have about 50 physical flex tickets available! Please see Julie G for those. (Get Flex Tickets Here)
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Charity Classic Games
Our Charity Classic games have officially come to a close! There’s still time to win or sabotage another Division in Penny Wars (Campbell Division is looking pretty full!) March 9th will be the last day to bring in your spare change and pop cans!
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
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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.
Olympian and World Juniors Divisions will have a year end party at the rink on March 16.
- Girls Division: Tuesday, March 19
- Norris Division: Wednesday, March 20
- Patrick Division: Thursday, March 21
- Campbell Division: Tuesday, March 26
- Adams Division: Wednesday, March 27