Thousands of people showed their support for a great cause by taking to the streets of Oakville and playing road hockey.
The sixth annual three-on-three road hockey tournament was held on Mar. 19, and brought over 3,000 people to the Kerr Street area.
Richard Messer, executive director for the Kerr Village BIA, has been actively involved in promoting the event and is also one of the coordinators for the tournament.
“It’s old-fashioned, garden-variety road hockey,” Messer said. “It’s a good, solid community event.”
The Kerr Village BIA (Business Improvement Area), an organization committed to the redevelopment and improvement of the Kerr Street area, has supported the three-on-three road hockey event for the past five years,
Since the first game, the annual event has attracted teams from across Ontario and gets bigger each year.
“We have teams from Sudbury,” he said. “We even have teams from East York.”
Messer wants to see the one-day tournament become a big weekend-long event.
“I would like to see this become a three-day event,” he said. “I would like to have this kick off on Friday night with a big party.”
Originally the event took place at a Canadian Tire parking lot in North Oakville, but later moved to the Kerr Street area.
Andrew Lamme decided to organize the three-on-three road hockey tournament to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“It came out of Hurricane Katrina and the need to give back to the community,” Lamme said. “This is all about giving back to the community.”
While the charities have changed since Hurricane Katrina the goal of the road hockey tournament has always been the same, have fun and support a great cause.
Today the money is donated to the Kerr Street Ministries and Home Suite Hope, two local organizations that give back to the community.
Janice Moro is involved with Homes Suite Hope, a charity that helps families in the Halton Region who are homeless or dealing with an unstable housing situation.
“We are thrilled the event has been amazing,” Moro said. “We have been so lucky to be involved and we are looking to help grow it every year so it gets bigger and bigger.”
Messer strongly believes in the event and hopes to see the road hockey tournament continue to bring people together for a good cause.
“This is good outdoor, fresh clean Canadian fun that any community would love to have,” he said. “This is a passionate event for me and I will never stop doing it.”