Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
The Cops and Cats Basketball program aims high every year in its mission to raise funds for the two charities that benefit; McMaster Children’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation.
This year however, it exceeded expectations and raised the second largest amount of money in the program’s ten-year history.
“I think our goal was about $18,000 coming into the year after we looked at all the schools and we beat that and reached $20,000 so obviously we’re excited about that,” said Shawn Burke, the Ticats Director of Community Relations and Communications.
“We’ve also had some help,” added Burke. “Marwan Hage and his Hage’s Heroes program made a very generous donation and we did some fundraising with the help of Jack Astor’s.”
Members of the Ticats and the Hamilton Police Service bring a basketball team to play local high schools in an effort to raise money at each school individually. The Cops and Cats team finished this year with a 15-1 record, their only loss coming at the hands of Orchard Park.
One of the most positive aspects of the program is the feeling students walk away with, knowing that they did something to help two deserving, local hospitals.
“It’s great because it’s honestly in the hands of the kids to raise most of the money,” said Burke. “They pay their money to get out of class and watch a basketball game and it goes to a good cause,” he said.
None of this would be possible if it weren’t for the players and officers giving their time to help raise money and awareness. In fact the increased participation by players and police has coincided with higher totals being raised in the last three years.
“The program is only getting stronger because we have more players donating their time to come into town in the off-season, and also the police having two or three people on board, fully supporting this program with their time and effort,” said Burke.
