Once again we're celebrating the end of another No Surrender Hockey Challenge in the battle to end the stigma associated with mental illness and help the community we live in.

Thanks to the efforts of the players, participants, volunteers and our amazing support system, we've raised $7000 for the CMHA Durham to support local Mental Health initiatives in Durham Region (http://durham.cmha.ca/). Our efforts will help the CMHA Durham  provide a broad range of services to those in our community struggling with mental health issues. Those services include: information and education, case management, psychosocial rehabilitation, housing and primary healthcare.

Special thanks goes out to everyone who made this tournament and initiative possible:

Mireille Huneault, Kelly Weeks and the volunteers from CMHA Durham (Ben, Kristy, Chris, Dwight, Kaitlin, Jacquelin and Tara, apologies if I'm missing anyone) for all your help coordinating and volunteering this past week-end..

Tom Ansell, Katie Ansell, Melissa Duke, Bronwen & Riley Spiers and Liana Clements for your awesome timekeeping skills as well as the donation of your time.

Melanie Curley, photographer and baker extraordinaire!

Jen Stanton, Kathleen Childs, Leslie Stanton, Lorrie Pilling, Joe and all those who stopped in to help with registration, T-Shirts & Raffle sales and set up. You rock!

Thank you to our corporate sponsors for their generosity in supporting our cause this year; Bathe & McLellan Building Materials, McMurter and Associates, CK Group of Companies, East Penn Canada Chateau Vezeau Wines, Golding Graphics, Homes and Land Magazineand Jim Stanton & Associates.

A huge thank you to all those who supplied our bake sale with tasty treats! This was the largest bake sale yet! 

To the organizing team: Deanne, Jim, Mireille and Jen, for all you did to help get this off the ground for a 4th straight year. Deanne, this wouldn't be possible without you -  you are amazing!

This year the winners of the Glenn Curley Memorial Trophy are The Ben Stanton's (Ben you can thank Jeff Hass for the name). While The Goon Squad took consolation. The Ben Stanton's had to pull off a huge upset in the playoffs beating the tournament favourites and last years champions, The Plugs (formerly Chappy). Boys it's an incredible honour to win the championship trophy given it's namesake. This is the trophy we started with and it represents our drive to be the change we want to see in the world. So to each of you, we thank you for participating and for taking on the cause last week-end.

Jello Shooters are the winners of the Women's division beating a very talented team with an emotional connection to the tournament, the Verny's. Both teams laid it all out on the ice and it came down to 1 goal to decide the game. Way to go!

Russ' Rangers never looked back from game one onward, winning the Old Timer's Championship trophy and defeating last years consolation champs BungalowDen.com. Thank you to all the Old Timer's for your generosity and spirit!

To everyone who participated this year we appreciate it so much! Coming together over this cause is so important to the future of mental health in our community. When you think about the fact that 1 in 5 Canadians has suffered mental illness, that it costs the Canadian economy $51 billion annually, and that it is one of the leading causes of death among youth in Canada, we need to make this a priority. We need to be educated about it. We need to make it comfortable and acceptable to seek help. We need to respect and support one another. Participating in this tournament is not just about hockey.  It mean's you're all a part of a community that sticks by one another and shows compassion to others even when it's difficult. It means you don't back down in the face of a challenge. It means you're supportive of your friends, family and colleagues. Most importantly, it means you're taking a stand and making a change. You're ending stigma. You're giving hope.

Thank you.

Sincerely,


Brian Stanton
No Surrender Hockey Challenge

Today I received a copy of an email Steve Cosentino that he sent out to his supporters to request for  donations and participation in this years No Surrender Hockey Challenge and I just had to share it with you all. 

It's extremely well written and inspiring. The video is amazing. Check it out:

Hello Friends,
 
As many of you may know I have a personal interest in educating others about mental illness and advocating for persons with mental illness. This comes as a consequence of my learnings regarding the insidious nature of the illness as to how it directly impacts, not only on the afflicted person, but also impacts directly the friends and families of those loved ones.  
So, to that end I will be playing in the NO SURRENDER HOCKEY CHALLENGE which will be held at Durham College this weekend in support of The Canadian Mental Health Association. If the fight against mental illness and the stigma associated with it is something that you would like to take on you don't have to lace on a pair of skates, but what you can do is visit https://www.canadahelps.org/dn/4830 where you can make a donation and in so doing please mention that it is in honour of the NO SURRENDER HOCKEY TOURNAMENT.
 
As well, please enjoy the  attached video link to an inspiring grass roots Newfoundland song production which sends a message to their provincial government, and which, in the final analysis is directed to all of us, because we can change our mental health system and the low regard that government has for it in terms of placing resources, and we do that by first changing our own attitudes towards mental illness. So, have a great day, and remember, we can make change, and we must........NEVER SURRENDER!
 
Best Regards
 
Steve
 
http://www.thisvideo.ca/
 
 
www.nosurrenderhockeychallenge.com

Just want to thank everyone who showed up to participate volunteer and cheer on their loved ones at the first day of the 2015 No Surrender Hockey Challenge last night.

Amazing work by organizers and volunteers Deanne, Kathleen, Joe, Jen and our friends from the CMHA Mireille, Kathy and Chevonne (hope I spelled that right). Lets not forget our time keepers Tom and Katie Ansell and Melissa Duke. Thank you so much.

Lots of great dialogue about mental health and some excellent information provided by the CMHA Durham.

We had some great hockey. 1 Women's div and an Old Timer's div game and 2 Men's div games were played. 

A couple very tight games in the Men's division with an exciting and or heartbreaking 7-6 game that was decided on a goal with 3 seconds left in regulation. get the win for the Goon Squad.

The next game  went 1 to 1 at the end of regulation and took an 8 player shoot out to decide the game. Both Kyle Nova and Adam Rogauwski played amazing in net but it was Adam Walker of the Stantonators who was able to sneak one in to win it in the end.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again tonight for some great hockey and the start of our classic bake sale.

Cheers,

Brian