On Saturday, Jan. 26, the Boys’ and Girls’ Varsity and Junior Varsity Hockey teams hosted the annual “Skate with the Hornets” event at the Braemar Ice Arena at the West Rink where they were able to donate 400 pounds of food and raise $300 for the Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP).  

Hockey is a popular sport in the Edina community, and therefore attracts more attention than any other sport in the city. Parents start having their children learn the game at a young age, so it is no surprise that the number of children at the event surpassed double digits.

“The event has been going on for around ten years I think and is hosted every year around February. There were around 100 kids skating [at the event],” senior varsity hockey player Kevin Delaney said. Aside from fundraising for the VEAP organization, this long-standing tradition brings young aspiring hockey players to skate with their role models to “promote kids to continue to play hockey,” Delaney said.

Skate with the Hornets allows the four hockey teams to bond and make connections with each other and the young hockey players. “It’s very cool to be looked up to by all the kids at the event, it’s something the team looks forward to every year because the kids are so much fun to be around,” Delaney said.

Although the event is planned by the parents, senior varsity hockey player Evelyn Adams and Delaney both agree that the Skate with the Hornets event is one of the many community service opportunities that the players look forward to it each hockey season.

Other service opportunities that all hockey teams participate in include bagging groceries for shoppers at Jerry’s Foods, assisting youth at the Life Time soccer dome, and providing the community with a coupon app called APay that gives participants great deals on everyday shopping necessities.  

“As a hockey player, I know that the younger kids really look up to my teammates and me. I feel honored to be a role model to the kids in our community and I am confident that my teammates feel the same way,” Adams said.