Junior High students at Ottewell School won their own version of the Connor McDavid lottery, and with slimmer odds than when the Edmonton Oilers won the No.1 overall pick to draft him nine years ago.
As part of a fundraising initiative put on by 10 schools in Edmonton and surrounding area, the southeast Edmonton junior high school had just a 4.1 per cent chance to win the visit from the Oilers captain.
But on Friday afternoon, McDavid arrived, his presence greeting with explosions of cheers.
“I thought it was really exciting, I thought the kids had a lot of energy.” said McDavid after spending almost an hour just hanging out, answering questions from the students and staff.
The 10 schools involved in the fundraiser collectively raised $74,000 for the Ben Stelter Foundation.
Ben Stelter became friends with McDavid and became an inspiration to many in the hockey world, while he battled glioblastoma — a rare form of brain cancer. He died on Aug. 9, 2022, at the age of six.
“Everybody did amazing work and it was for a great cause in memory and legacy of Ben Stelter and his name. They continue to help families and kids that are going through this terrible disease,” said McDavid.
The Ben Stelter Foundation has raised close to $2.5 million.
“For anybody that met Ben, he had such a personality, this little five, six-year-old kid that had so much life and personality, that he was just destined to do big things,” said McDavid.
“Even though he’s no longer with us today, you can tell that his legacy lives on and will live on for an extremely long time. That’s a big part and thanks to the Mawji family, the directing team that puts this whole thing together, the Stelter family and the amazing work they do with the foundation and to Ben himself, just with the life he lived, the energy that he brought and personality that he had, he was a special little guy and we miss him.”
McDavid gave two autographed Oilers jerseys to Ottewell students Dutt Vyas and Kyle Ma, the fundraising leaders for the school.
“The actual money that’s being raised, the awareness that’s being raised, the support of Ben, his family and the foundation, it’s been amazing to see,” said McDavid.
The fundraiser’s goal is to help bring proton therapy to Edmonton and across the country. It’s not offered in Canada so some patients now seek treatment in the U.S., which can add more strain on families.
“We’re hoping to bring proton therapy to Canada and that would be such a big thing. That’s a big credit to the kids that continue to support it,” said McDavid.
The fundraising pitch
The idea for the fundraiser came from 15-year-old Aariz Mawji, whose father is the chair of the Ben Stelter Foundation. Two years ago, the teen pitched the idea to his principal. He raised $11,000 on his own the first year, and then got more schools involved last year to raise $43,000, and $74,000 this year.
“I think the trickiest part was getting the schools involved. It’s really hard for a school to do something like this, and it takes a lot of time and commitment for them. The easiest part we found kids react well to this fundraising topic,” said Mawji, who is a Grade 10 student at Lillian Osborne High School.
“I just thought it would be great to see kids raising money for kids, and I’m happy it turned out like this.”
Each participating school got one ballot and for every $1,000 raised, the school earned another ballot. Ottewell school raised almost $3,000.
Namao School, a kindergarten to Grade 9 school in Sturgeon County, raised the most money at more than $16,000, and representatives from Namao were also able to attend Friday’s event.
“It warms my heart to see we were able to make an impact like this,” said Mawji.
“I think next year we’ll be (able to raise) over $100,000 and the years after with more and more work I believe strongly we can grow this to a $1-million fundraiser.”
‘Feel the excitement’
Lea Stelter and her husband Mike joined McDavid at Ottwell.
“You could feel the excitement as soon as he walked into the school,” said Lea.
”Actually, I could feel it walking up to the school, outside. It was really special and really exciting.”
What makes this fundraiser so special is its kids helping kids.
“Anything to do with kids raising money for other kids, I think is powerful,” said Lea.
“It really shows you how pure of heart kids are, because they’re doing it for other kids that can’t.”
Witnessing the effect her son has had on the city and the those impacted by cancer while he fought his battle, and since his passing, is moving, she added.
“I’m a proud mom. I’m proud of all three of my kids, and I’m always proud of Benny, but to see how he’s truly changing the city and hopefully bringing positive changes to the cancer world — I’m so proud,” said Lea.
“I wish and hope he could see what a good job he’s doing.”
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