On Sunday, March 25th, the 11th annual Battle of the Badges hockey game will take place at Southern New Hampshire University arena in Manchester, NH at 3:00 P.M. The game is Team Fire (local firefighters) against Team Police (local police officers), who play to raise money to support the kids and programs at the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock.
Last year, the game celebrated 10 seasons of Red vs. Blue and together raised nearly $275,000 for CHaD and pushed the grand total raised to just under $2 million in the game’s history. The Police won both the fundraising battle and the game on the ice to improve the all-time series record to 6-3 in their favor.
This year, the teams have raised just over $170,000, and with a few days still left, they hope to reach their goal of $275,000. Officers and firefighters who intend to play in the 2018 game will raise at least $1,500 for the privilege to play on the ice. However, most surpass this goal by a wide margin. Michael Snide of the Claremont Fire Department is the top fundraiser right now with an incredible $19,464 raised already. He surpassed his original goal of $15,000 by over 4k and there are still days until the game.
Each player in the game has gained a new friend. They are assigned a CHaD Buddy, a patient at CHaD, which provides a tangible connection between the fundraising support of the players and the work that CHaD does. It is much more than a hockey game and participants get to appreciate the true meaning of the Battle of the Badges when visiting their CHaD Buddy.
“It’s incredible how far this game has grown,” Police Head Coach, Wayne Sheehan of Kensington, said. “The people that are now involved in this game… it’s just amazing. All of the officers… the fire officers and the police officers… make a lot of sacrifices. Their families make some sacrifices. They are working really hard to make a difference for the CHaD kids and parents.”
One of the people now involved in the game is former Boston Bruin, Bruce Carter, who is helping coach team Fire in preparation of Sunday’s game.
Head Coach of team Fire, Micky Drouin of Dover, said, “We’ve definitely made some new changes. We’ve got some new players. We’re ramping it up this year. We got Bruce Carter on the ice with a ton of hockey knowledge helping us out, so that’s been very helpful.”
Sheehan, on what he’s seen from team Fire, said, “They’re moving the puck very well… skating well. It should be a very exciting game on Sunday.”
By Kameron Towle, sports editor
photo credit: chadhockey.kintera.org
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