Firefighters gearing up for charitable hockey marathon

Members of the Sault Ste. Marie Professional Firefighters Association Local 529 (SSMPFFA) are preparing to lace up the skates for their 15th annual Hockey Marathon for Local Charities at the Community First Soo Pee Wee Arena next week.

Running on April 21 from 8 a.m. until midnight, the 16-hour charity event will invite the public to watch members from the SSMPFFA take to the ice against a number of participating organizations from across the Sault.

Teams are made up of competitors from a variety of local services and institutions, including Sault Fire, Police, and EMS, as well as several high schools and kids’ hockey and ringette clubs.

First-class firefighter and event organizer Micky Sartoretto says this is the first time they’ve been able to host the event since 2019.

“It’s a really big event,” he says. “We try to keep it pretty light and it’s not too intense on the ice. It’s a lot of fun.”

“During COVID, these events may have stopped because of the circumstances, but charities still needed the money, so it’s nice to finally have things up and running again.”

Involved with the hockey marathon for three years, Sartoretto says a group of guys from the SSMPFFA have been reaching out to businesses around town for sponsorships to help cover the costs of the ice-time rental.

Several businesses have also opted to provide food, coffee, and snacks throughout the day – a generous effort that doesn’t go unnoticed according to the organizer.

“I can honestly say, this year, the response and the support from the community has been the most I’ve ever been a part of,” Sartoretto says. “We can’t thank the community enough; the support has been awesome.”

The event will also include an all you can eat pasta dinner upstairs at Centre Ice on April 21 from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Tickets for the dinner are $20 and can be purchased by messaging the SSMPFFA Facebook page.

All proceeds raised from the pasta dinner, as well as the donations put in by each hockey team, will go directly into the SSMPFFA charities account to help support a number of local causes and initiatives – primarily, for muscular dystrophy. 

Throughout its 14-year course, the marathon has raised well over $120,000 to date.