On February 8th 2009 over 700 people came to skate at General Motors Place
for Skate for a Cure presented by McDonald's.
The event raised $135,000 for the Michael Cuccione
Laboratory for childhood cancer research at BC Children's
Hospital. Participants who raised more than $300 received a VIP photo taken
with Vancouver Canuck Taylor Pyatt. Sports Celebrities Lui Passaglia, Sherko
Haji-Rasouli, Dean Valli and Bobby Lenarduzzi interacted with the participants.
Other highlights of this wonderful event included open skate times on General
Motors Place ice, Canadian Tire Family Fun Zone including games, prizes, Nintendo
Wii and a silent auction, Face painting, mini golf, balloon animals, spray
on tattoos and a live band and Mascot presence including Sunny Bear, Leo the
Lion, Bob Brown Bear and Ronald McDonald.
Together we will defeat childhood
cancer!
HOW THE SKATE FOR A CURE BEGAN
Our son Michael loved the Vancouver Canucks Games and wouldn't miss a hockey game on TV but couldn't play the sport due to his battles with cancer, however his younger brother Steve played hockey since he was six years old. When Michael ended up in ICU for the last six weeks of his life on a ventilator, his brother Steve would tell Michael that he scored a goal for him at his hockey game. Michael would write on a piece of paper, "don't worry about scoring me a goal, just have fun".
On the last day of Michael's life, we were told he was taking a turn for the worst and we need to call the family and we gathered around Michael in ICU at BC Children's hospital for 11 hours until Michael took his last breath. Our son Steve, then 12 years old would not leave his brothers side for the entire 11 hours and begged his brother not to leave him, but sadly Steve watched his brother take his last breaths.
The next day, Steve said "don't tell anyone I lost my brother" and said he wanted to go to his scheduled hockey game and score his brother a goal. It was a blur how he managed to get to his game, but little did he know everyone already knew that Michael had passed away as Michael was high profile and it was all over the media. His coach was overwhelmed with Steve's courage and saw him score his brother a goal and go down on his knees and look up and pat his heart. In that sacred moment the coach seeing what Steve had done, was so touched by this that he was inspired to collect all the jersey's at the end of the game and had a crest made with Michael's initials and the # 2 for his hit TV Show with MTV called "2Gether" and returned the jersey's at the next game with a logo on every jersey.
The coach made the announcement, "we are going to do a skate to help raise funds for Steve's brother's foundation, the Michael Cuccione Foundation to help raise money for childhood cancer research". They raised $5000,00 for this important cause. Michael didn't wait 24 hours before passing the torch to his brother Steve to help continue his legacy to Make a Difference.
Along with Steve's courage, the coach's inspiration that following year, the Skate for A Cure was born. The first three years, Trent Klatt, from the Vancouver Canucks, became involved and was a champion to gain the support of some of his team members to help us establish the Skate for A Cure and to take this event to another level. The following year this event raised $35,000.00. We are proud to be partnering with the BC Children's hospital to again take this event to an even higher level and our goal is to spread the event far and wide. We welcome everyone to join in this fight for childhood cancer research! |
Michael's Story 
Skate For A Cure (9th Annual) "Skate For A Cure (9th Annual)")
