CFCW ‘Critters’ charity hockey team celebrates 30 years

Submitted by Marty Stevens, Retail Sales Manager & National Ag Specialist, 840 CFCW Camrose / Sports 1440 Wetaskiwin / New Country 98.1 Camrose

What started as a tie-in to CFCW’s Edmonton Oilers broadcasts, has grown above and beyond all expectations and continues to thrive well after the Country heritage station’s Oilers contract came to a conclusion. 

Nov. 25^th, 1993 was our first CFCW Critters hockey game. That team was made up of a collection of sales, on-air, newsroom, promotions, the husband of someone in traffic and friend of a friend who was a goalie. Did we know how long the tradition would continue? Heck I’m not even sure if we knew, if we’d make it past the first period. The good news was that we actually made it through all three periods. To quote the local paper, “the on-ice shenanigans raised about $600 for Thorhild Minor Sports.”

Shenanigans is a great way to describe Critter hockey. Like CFCW itself, a Critters hockey game is fun, interactive and for the whole family. A fun night out and raising money for local charities is always the goal. During our years on the road, we’ve raised money for anything and everything; minor hockey, grad trips, lunch programs, medical equipment, playground equipment, ag societies, dance programs, senior residences and a ton of other local endeavours. 840 CFCW does not receive a fee of any kind for these games and all money raised stays in each local community we visit.

On Nov. 30^th, 2023, the CFCW Critters traveled back to Thorhild, AB to celebrate our 30^th anniversary. This time around we sold the place out at 350 people and raised just over $27,000! We were also lucky enough to have seven members of that original team – Tom Easy, Doug Hawryluk, Chuck Tetrault, Tim Ellis, Syd Smith, Shane Clemmer, and Marty Stevens – join us for the game.

CFCW teases each game with a commercial campaign and on-air interviews. We also provide 30 years of experience on how to raise money via 50/50’s, raffle tables, auctions, a puck or paper airplane toss, admission tickets & player sponsorship…but ultimately it is up to each community on how they implement their fundraising plans. 

The CFCW Critters have now raised in excess of $1.2 million dollars and will crack the $1.3 million mark later this season. 

The team’s remaining 2023-24 schedule includes:

• Rimbey, Dec. 14
• Ponoka, Jan. 11
• New Sarepta, Jan. 25
• Tofield, Feb. 8
• Daysland, Feb. 22