Posts by Day: Thursday, November 06, 2008

The Washington Capitals hockey team is said to be on top of their game. Besides doing a great job on the ice a behind the scenes look at the Washington Capitals Hockey Team shows much more than one would expect to find. They are motivated to help the children in different communities. Partnering with many elementary and middle schools, the team has offered grants called "Caps care click to win" program. The winning school for the grant is determined by the highest number of people from a specific school that attends the Capitals games. The Washington Capitals players are personally involved with the fund raising efforts. Causing the players to give back to the children also.

A very good example of this is retired Washington Capitals Hockey player, Joe Juneau. He retired after the 2003-04 NHL season after thirteen years with the Washington Capitals. He moved back to Quebec where he was born on January 5, 1968. Joe is carrying on the tradition that was familiar to him for thirteen years by helping the children in the community he once lived. Joe saw there was a desperate need to get the children off of the streets. In this small town of Nunavik there are no structured activities for children and they become bored and turn to violence, substance abuse and in some cases even suicide. The only condition that Joe put into place was that each child had to be participating in school and have good grades to train.

The residents say what Joe has done has brought awareness to the little town of Nunavik and has given these children a fighting chance to make something of themselves. Was all of this inspired by thirteen years of work done while playing hockey with the Washington Capitals Team?