The Hamilton College women’s hockey team’s charity game to benefit Austin’s Playrooms will be held at Hamilton's Russell Sage Rink on Saturday, Feb. 2, when the Continentals take on NESCAC rival Bowdoin College at 3 p.m.
Raffle | Donations | Video
Austin’s Playrooms is part of the Mario Lemieux Foundation. Lemieux is the current owner of the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and was named one of the “100 Greatest NHL Players” by the league as part of its 100-year anniversary in 2017. He is eighth all-time in NHL history with 1,723 points after a 17-year career with the Penguins.
Lemieux’s son Austin was born prematurely in 1996 and spent more than two months in a neonatal intensive care unit. The Lemieuxs had two daughters under the age of 3 at the time and there was nothing to engage the sisters at the hospital while Mario and his wife tried to spend time with their son. This personal experience was the genesis for the idea of the playrooms.
The women’s hockey team has established an online raffle and a “GoFundMe” page to help raise money for the event. Those links can be found above.
Austin’s Playrooms seek to benefit families and improve the quality of a child’s hospital experience whether as a visitor or patient by establishing cheerful playrooms that are safe, calming and comfortable. The playrooms can be found in more than 30 hospitals in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, as well as military hospitals across the U.S.
