A team of Blind Hockey players will have their courage on full display this September as they relay-skate 1000 kilometers on a trip between Windsor and Ottawa for the upcoming #COURAGE21 Inline Skate Fundraiser. The campaign takes place between September 1 and 11, with the goals of continuing to raise awareness the Para sport of Blind Hockey, and to raise $100,000 in support of Canadian Blind Hockey programming coast-to-coast.

#COURAGE21 is also celebration of all that has been achieved over the past decade and honours a very important anniversary for Canadian Blind Hockey. The charity was founded by Blind Hockey player Mark DeMontis who inline skated from Toronto to Vancouver in 2009, and then Halifax to Toronto in 2011. #COURAGE21 honours the 10th anniversary of the completion of Mark’s cross-Canada journeys which raised the necessary funds to begin to grow the Para sport of Blind Hockey to where it is today.

Halifax native Kelly Serbu is both the president of Canadian Blind Hockey and the national team captain. When he was 19-year-old, the former Junior A hockey player, who had been experiencing problems with his vision on the ice, was diagnosed with Stargardt disease. Today, along with DeMontis, he is helping to lead the team on their journey.

“The vision has always been focused on giving kids who were blind or partially sighted the opportunity to play hockey, and it is incredible to see what has happened with the growth of the sport over the last ten years,” said DeMontis. “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than another inline skate with some teammates through my home province of Ontario and to raise some much-needed funds to keep the vision going for the next ten years.”

In 2011, there were only four Blind Hockey teams across the country and none outside of Canada. Over the last decade Canadian Blind Hockey has led the development of the sport to grow to fourteen teams in Canada, 20 teams in the United States, and programs in six countries worldwide including England, Russia, Finland, and Sweden. The next steps including growing the International Blind Ice Hockey Federation and establishing the first-ever World Championships for Blind Ice Hockey.

“Blind Hockey was invented in Canada at the W Ross MacDonald School for the Blind in 1936, and yet 75 years later it was still a very small sport with no national organization” states Canadian Blind Hockey Executive Director Matt Morrow. “The previous inline skates changed all that led to the creation of Canadian Blind Hockey which has now impacted the lives of thousands of boys and girls who are blind or partially sighted across Canada, established children and youth teams across the country, hosted dozens of camps and regional tournaments, and founded the annual Canadian National Blind Hockey Tournament.”

In addition to inline skating 100 kilometers per day Canadian Blind Hockey will be hosting campaign events in communities along the way including: a departure event in Windsor on Wednesday, September 1 and an arrival celebration and Blind Hockey game at TD Place Arena in Ottawa on Saturday, September 11.

For more information about #COURAGE21 or Canadian Blind Hockey, please visit: canadianblindhockey.com