By Mike LeClair
Sentinel & Enterprise
Copyright 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Mid-States Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
FITCHBURG, Mass. — The first of hopefully many more to come.
Sunday afternoon marked the first annual Tribute to Firefighters charity hockey game at the Wallace Civic Center. The charity game is played between members of the Fitchburg and Leominster fire departments.
The proceeds from the event go to On-Site Academy of Gardner. The On-Site Academy is a non-profit residential treatment and training center. On-Site Academy serves law enforcement, fire service, EMT’s and other human service personnel who become temporarily overwhelmed by the stress of their jobs.
Founder and president Dr. Hayden Duggan and chief operating officer Sal Ciccone took a few minutes to talk about the organization and how the Huskies and On-Site Academy got involved with each other.
“We started this organization 14 years ago because there wasn’t a place for our people to go,” said Duggan. “We have all kinds of programs for all kinds of populations out there but there was nothing for the people who provided the services.”
“It’s a great honor for us to be selected,” said Ciccone. “Today is a real surprise for us. We weren’t involved with the Huskies at all but we received a call from their media director (Chuck Barney) and he said that the Leominster and Fitchburg firefighters were having a game and they were getting to choose a charity or an organization that would benefit from the proceeds and they named us.”
Barney, who serves as the Huskies media director and donated a large amount of time to arrange the event, shared in the enthusiasm.
“We come from this community. A lot of us have played hockey here and have grown up playing hockey with the firefighters,” said Barney, who took a break from watching the action on the ice. “We wanted to do something for the community and the firefighters are always tops on the list. So we asked them to find a charity that would be appropriate.”
There was no official word as of Sunday afternoon just how much money had been raised from the event.
As for the game itself, Leominster used four goals in each of the first and second periods to propel it to a 10-4 win.
Todd Chrusial led the Leominster scoring attack, which saw eight players find their way onto the scoresheet. Chrusial finished with three goals and two assists for a five-point performance. Drew Stacey added two goals and two assists for Leominster.
“We’re just really happy that Leominster and Fitchburg can get together and play hockey again. It’s been awhile since the two fire departments have gotten together,” said Leominster’s Vinny Alia. “The fact that it’s a charity game to help other firefighters is great.”
Over on the other side of the ice, Fitchburg’s Bill Vautour was pleased despite being on the short end of the scoreboard.
“This was great, we were all happy to do it. We thought it would be a fun thing and we’d love to do it every year,” he said. “They asked us if we wanted to play a charity game and when we found out we’d be playing for the On-Site Academy we thought that was great because they are wicked awesome up there.”
Vautour led Fitchburg with two goals and an assist. Rob Carr also contributed, notching a goal and an assist in a losing effort.
Huskies president Leo Gould was in attendance to watch the event and even though the firefighters had some stiff competition for attendance — the puck dropped during the New England Patriots’ NFL playoff game against the New York Jets — Gould felt good about the day.
“I’m pleased, yeah, I think so. Obviously with the Patriots playing today it was a big day for them and we didn’t get a whole lot of fans, but it’s the first year we’ve done it. Next year, we’ll probably do it on a Friday night,” said Gould. “I think it’s a great cause and you can’t say enough about our fire departments. Of course when we had 9/11, those guys were outstanding as they are all the time.”