{"id":17918,"date":"2017-07-26T15:46:19","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T19:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17918"},"modified":"2017-07-26T15:47:42","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T19:47:42","slug":"ladies-get-ball-sy-to-help-out-their-favourite-causes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ladies-get-ball-sy-to-help-out-their-favourite-causes\/","title":{"rendered":"Ladies get Ball-sy to help out their favourite causes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

To make a difference, sometimes it takes some balls \u2013 just as the women of the Aurora\/Newmarket Ladies Ball Hockey League.
\nThere might not be skates, but some of our area\u2019s fastest women are lacing up their running shoes, taping up their hockey sticks, and getting their balls warmed up for their summer tournament, the end of another fun season on the ice-free floor of Arena One of the Aurora Community Centre.
\nBut this isn\u2019t just an ordinary go-home-with-the-glory tourney \u2013 it is a way creative way for the League members to give back to their own community.
\nFrom May until August, the Aurora\/Newmarket Ladies Ball Hockey Team (ANLBHL) meets at the Aurora Community Centre, divided up into eight teams.
\nUntil fairly recently, the League would end each season with a celebration featuring a banquet of food, door prizes and awards to League champs.
\nBut, recognizing some people and organizations in the community were hurting, they decided to task each of the eight teams with selecting a charity to play for \u2013 and, if they happened to win the division title, a donation would be made to the cause.
\nSince 2013, over $4,500 has been donated to community groups ranging from the Aurora Food Pantry, to Dog Tails, to Walk It Off, to the Canadian Cancer Society.
\nThe League is planning to ramp it up once again this year, playing for Walk It Off, the Aurora Food Pantry, the Canadian Cancer Society, Autism Ontario, Dog Tails, Camp Oochigeas, Sick Kids Hospital, and the Student-Athlete Mental Health Initiative.
\n\u201cI was involved in three leagues [when we started doing this] and we would always get t-shirts, and door prizes like small gift cards and I ran the idea by the girls to say rather than getting a t-shirt no one wants or pyjamas that don\u2019t fit, why not give the money to charity?\u201d says ANLBHL\u2019s Lynda Pockett. \u201cAnd, if you can pick your own charity, it makes it a little bit more personal.
\n\u201cOver the years, we have even supported families in the community who aren\u2019t registered charities. We don\u2019t demand that they be a registered charity, so to speak, but one family had a child going through sickness and we helped out with any of the costs involved \u2013 after all, you\u2019re going through a trying time anyway and don\u2019t need the extra headache and they can\u2019t get support from other places.\u201d
\nAdds fellow Leaguer Katie Williams, \u201cThe teams talk about the causes. I know our team hashes out what [their charity] is going to be and everyone makes their pitch, so that [too] is a team effort and we try to keep it local.\u201d
\nThe eight teams are divided into two divisions \u2013 a top four and a bottom four \u2013 so the champion in the top four division will receive $500 for their recipient, and the winning bottom four team will rake in $300. To even the playing field, every charity does get something. The Top Rookie Award for the best newby on each team, for instance, is awarded $5 for each point racked up during the season.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t usually quibble because sometimes they don\u2019t get a lot of points, but it is a minimum of $50 anyway,\u201d says Pockett.
\nWhile the women are having fun planning for the season-ender, they are having just as much fun \u2013 albeit competitive fun \u2013 out on the arena floor.
\nThe League has been around for over 20 years and is one of the longest-running Tuesday summer ladies ball hockey clubs in the Province, collecting active players aged from 18 to 65-and-counting.
\n\u201cWord of mouth is pretty much how I got involved,\u201d explains Pockett. \u201cI play ice hockey \u2013 and I prefer ice hockey because there is a lot less running \u2013 but I became involved and now I am left running it with Katie \u2013 and Katie always has her hands in most things to do with women and any type of hockey.\u201d
\n\u201cI love it!\u201d says Williams. \u201cIt is a growing and growing sport. We can add more teams, but we don\u2019t have any more floor time. Eight teams on Tuesday nights is all we can fit in.\u201d
\nThat being said, however, they are always looking for new members to join existing teams and for members of the public to come out for free and cheer them on.
\n\u201cIt is a quality sporting event,\u201d says Williams. \u201cThese girls play some good ball. It is competitive, there are close matches, and it is fun. Everyone has fun and it\u2019s free \u2013 and it is also an easy way to get exercise, socialize and spend time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Aurora Ladies Ball Hockey Finals takes place next Tuesday, August 1, at the Aurora Community Centre from 6.45 \u2013 11.30 p.m. For more information on the game or how to become involved with the League, contact Katie Williams at katiehockey@bell.net or 905-967-3611.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To make a difference, sometimes it takes some balls \u2013 just as the women of the Aurora\/Newmarket Ladies Ball Hockey League.
\nThere might not be skates, but some of our area\u2019s fastest women are lacing up their running shoes, taping up their hockey sticks, and getting their balls warmed up for their summer tournament, the end of another fun season on the ice-free floor of Arena One of the Aurora Community Centre. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/2017-07-27-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4F0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 10:57:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}