Hockey and Breast Cancer

Who knew these two went together? They do, at least in Minnesota and in a big way! The Stick It to Breast Cancer Women's Hockey tournament is coming up later this month at the SuperRink in Blaine. My team, Stickin' Around is playing. The have put an ad in the tournament program that I find incredibly touching.

They are wonderful group of women that I have been so fortunate to meet and skate with this past winter. I am planning on rejoining them in the fall.

My former team is called Icy Hot. They are also playing in the Stick It Tournament and have done a couple of things that I want everyone to know about. First, they have renamed their team to Team Mack in my honor. They have also created a jersey just for the tournament. They will be skating in their new jerseys but have also made them available to anyone interested in purchasing them as an additional fundraiser for the tournament.

Here's the information they published about the jerseys:

As you know, we've changed our name for the Stick It tournament to "Team Mack" to show support and encouragement for our former goalie Mary Mackenburg (current goalie for "Stickin' Around"). Mary Mack also managed and played for "Blades of Steel." Mary Mack has been a great proponent of women's hockey over the years. Because she is an educator at heart, she has chosen to blog the entire story of her cancer at http://a-womanofsubstance.blogspot.com/ so that all of us can follow her journey and learn. Our team knows there are many women standing bravely to fight cancer. We know none of us are exempt. We are pleased to have an opportunity to skate in the Stick It Tournament to fight cancer.

Mike Curti (Chicks with Stix, and illustrator for Hockey Magazine) is graciously designing a jersey logo for Team Mack. The jerseys will be a practice quality dark color and the illustration front will say "GET CHECKED" in pink. They'll also say "TEAM MACK" and will have a # on the back. Size L or XL. We've gotten a break on the jerseys from Dave's and the screen printing company so the net cost is about $15/jersey. We were going to only order these jerseys for our team and to our surprise -- others have expressed an interest in owning them. We are offering an opportunity to anyone involved in Stick It to buy one of these jerseys. We'll sell them for $20 and give $5 back to the tournament. They must be ordered April 9th.

If you are interested in ordering your own jersey, here is the information:

Team Mack Jersey Order Form

Your name___________________________________________________________

Best phone # to reach you ________________________________________________

Your email___________________________________________________________

Jersey size? L XL

Number on your jersey? _____________

$20 payment in full to Stick it Jersey/Sapa Carlson
Jerseys can be picked up at the Tournament Office at the Super Rink during the tournament.
Our cost is $15/jersey. $5 from each jersey sale will be donated to Stick it to Cancer.
If you have any questions, please email Sapa@sapaRealtor.com

Orders and payment must be received by Monday, April 9th.
Please send your check and order to:
Alison Talley
8817 West 35th Street
St Louis Park, MN 55426

If you decide to order a jersey, I will be attending the tournament and will be sure that you receive it. You might want to consider attending the tournament yourself. In addition to watching some great women's hockey, they are having a waffle breakfast and a silent auction. All proceeds from the tournament and other events (including the Team Mack jerseys) goes to breast cancer research.