Photo courtesy of Columbus Blue Jackets
The Ice Is Right
Blue Jackets show their commitment to community and charity
Though they spend a lot of time on the ice, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ hearts are anything but cold.
Between the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation, the Lady Jackets and individual players’ charitable endeavors, the team is involved in a nigh-limitless number of worthy causes.
Photo courtesy of Columbus Blue Jackets
The Ice Is Right
The Players
The team’s spirit of charity is one of team captain and left winger Nick Foligno’s favorite things about playing here, he says.
“One thing I really think is great about our organization is how we try to get out into the community,” Foligno says.
Foligno, who is in his fourth year playing for the Blue Jackets, has known struggle in his life, and his dedication to charity is a means to help others going through a rough time, he says.
“It allows us to continue to make a difference,” he says. “I think it’s a great way for us to be not just hockey players, but members of the community.”
One activity that stands out in Foligno’s mind is a trip the players made to the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio.
“They actually build the furniture by hand, so we went in … and helped assemble everything,” he says.
Players have also volunteered at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank and visited children at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The team as a whole does one specific day visit, but a number of players also go on their own time, Foligno says.
“I’ve been on the other side, where we’ve had to use Nationwide Children’s for our kids, so we know what it’s like,” he says. “It’s amazing how they teach you about life and what (patients) are struggling with.”
In addition to his work with the team, Foligno also has his own charitable foundation, the Janis Foligno Foundation. Janis Foligno was Foligno’s mother, who died of breast cancer, and the foundation raises money for research on and treatment of the disease. It does most of its work in Foligno’s hometown of Sudbury, Ontario, but he has been looking for ways to bring it to Columbus.
Foligno’s father, Mike, a retired hockey player and current assistant coach for the New Jersey Devils, passed down to him a spirit of charity. His philosophy, says Folingo’s wife, Janelle, was “If you’re good to the game, then the game will be good to you.”
He received the team’s Community MVP award for his charity work in April.
Several other players, including right winger Cam Atkinson and left winger Scott Hartnell, have their own foundations, usually based in their hometowns. Others have mechanisms to host children or families at games, such as right winger David Clarkson, who has bought a suite for the season – known as “Clarky’s Clubhouse” – and selects deserving groups to use it.
Photo courtesy of Columbus Blue Jackets
The Ice Is Right
The Lady Jackets
The Lady Jackets – a group made up of players’, coaches’ and management staff’s wives and girlfriends – often helps out with the foundation’s efforts. But the group members also hold a major fundraiser of their own each holiday season.
For the Blue Jackets Favorites Basket Auction and Raffle, the Lady Jackets put together custom gift baskets of items that reflect the personalities and interests of the players and team management. The baskets are auctioned and raffled off during home games in December, and can be bid on live or via mobile bidding.
“It’s our biggest fundraiser,” says Sarah Tyutin, wife of defenseman Fedor Tyutin. “It’s where we make most of our money that goes toward the projects the Lady Blue Jackets do each year.”
In 2014, the Lady Jackets raised money for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio. The group funded a Princess Room for girls whose families are staying at the house to enjoy. Members designed the space, bought all the furniture and accessories, put everything together and even hosted a tea party to launch it.
Janelle Foligno is an enthusiastic participant in the basket fundraiser. The 2014 package she put together for Nick included dinner with the two of them at Cooper’s Hawk Winery and an assortment of items related to Nick’s Italian heritage and love of Italian cooking.
“We all get a little bit competitive,” Janelle says. “We all want to have the best basket.”
Tyutin’s baskets have included gaming systems, an iPod loaded with Fedor’s favorite music and even a skating experience with him.
“The fans get to have a little peek into the lives of the players,” Janelle says. “They know them on the ice, but they don’t necessarily know them off the ice.”
Photo courtesy of KidSMILES
The Ice Is Right
This year, the fundraiser runs Dec. 12-19 and benefits KidSMILES Pediatric Dental Clinic.
KidSMILES sends representatives to visit area schools to talk to students about dental hygiene and hand out dental supplies such as toothbrushes and floss. It also has a clinic in northwest Columbus at which eligible children can receive a wide range of treatment for just $10 each.
“We want to liven (the clinic) up and make it a comfortable place for kids to visit,” Janelle says.
KidSMILES is not new to the Blue Jackets; the foundation granted the organization $50,000 in start-up money in 2011 to help it open its clinic, which it finally did in 2013, and has worked to support its educational outreach programs at elementary schools.
“Without their support, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” says KidSMILES co-founder Julie Homon. “It sounds dramatic, but it’s just the simple, unvarnished truth.”
The Lady Jackets are also involved in an adopt-a-school program for Avondale Elementary School in north Columbus. The school has had trouble keeping its attendance up, so four times a year, it offers students with good attendance the chance to bring their families to the school to have a meal provided by the foundation and served by the Lady Jackets.
The Foundation
The foundation was formed in 2000, the year of the team’s first season. It has four targets: pediatric cancer research and relief, education, health and safety, and development of youth hockey.
It doled out $850,000 in grant money for its 2014-15 grant cycle, and as of July, it had invested $7 million since its inception.
The youth hockey prong is a less conventional angle and a point of pride for the foundation. The group supports sled hockey, financial support for scholarships for children who want to play and special hockey programs for children with disabilities.
“Our major focus there is removing barriers and making sure every child who wants to play has that opportunity,” says Kathryn Dobbs, team vice president of community relations and executive director of the foundation.
Photo courtesy of Columbus Blue Jackets
The Ice Is Right
The foundation partners with Nationwide Children’s to promote health and safety and pediatric cancer research. One of its biggest causes is bike safety, Dobbs says.
“Since 2008, we’ve given away more than 30,000 bike helmets through that program,” she says.
The foundation also supports homework help centers in the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.
The annual full-team visit to Nationwide Children’s is one of the most anticipated items on the team’s calendar, says Dobbs.
“There is no question in anyone’s mind – whether you’re staff, a Lady Jacket or a player – that that day really encompasses the opportunity we have to, off the ice, take the unique assets and resources that we have as a team … to go in and make kids happy,” she says.
Garth Bishop is managing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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