GatewayRedbirds.com

I have to brag this up. My wife and I do a lot to support the booster club of the Quad City Mallards ECHL hockey team (I'm actually the VP of it). It's tough to find time for this with 3 kids now, but I think it's been a nice thing for my wife. It gets her out of the house and engaging with other adults. And she deserves a lot of credit for this. The girl with cancer in the article is in our 10 year old's class. Some of the members of the club heard my wife talking about it. They suggested sharing some of the proceeds from the club's trivia night fundraiser to help offset their costs. As we were planning that event, the Mallards' team equipment manager heard something and asked my wife about it. He got the family free tickets to a game, and they took her back to the locker room to meet the players, she got to watch the warm-ups from the team bench and they gave her a jersey with her name on the back that all the players signed. Now, they come to almost every game and they never let them pay for a ticket.

Stuff like this is why I'm such a supporter of minor league sports. The games and winning and losing and all that are fun, but the community stuff like this is the real purpose IMO. Last year, the trivia night raised money to help pay for funeral costs for a family who's dad died unexpectedly. The year before, one of the player's wives had just had a baby. The baby had a lot of health issues and was at the University hospital in Iowa City for a few months. We raised money to help offset their costs because players don't make squat at this level.

Flock backing Emily's Fight

The Quad City Mallards' Booster Club receives little fanfare for its good works behind the scenes supporting local hockey and community causes.

That's just the way the 100-plus member service organization rolls — preferring to see its favorite team in the spotlight rather than its own efforts.

Today is a much-needed exception, though.

Emily Potter, a devoted member of the Flock from Davenport, owns a 100,000-megawatt smile that lights up Moline's iWireless Center most nights the Mallards are home.

The 9-year-old is forced to miss some games, though, because of Emily's continuing battle with recurring brain cancer.

She's the one holding up the "Potter" jersey in the picture:

Glad you're able to do things like that, 98!

Thats cool stuff 98. I will have to stop thinking so poorly of you.

That is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

That's awesome. Really great work there.

Thanks! I only had a small part in it though. The people that really made all the connections to make this happen are my wife and Drew Kitts, the equipment manager.

I guess the people involved in setting up the trivia night deserve credit, too, which was several people. They laid the groundwork for something nice to happen, and it grew from there.

The trivia night event was last night. The club was planning to donate $500 plus whatever we got from the 50/50 and raffles. We also donated $350 to a kids' hockey team to help them pay for ice time. Anyway, the guy who won the 50/50 donated his half back. Then all the teams who won prizes all donated their winnings back as well. In total Emily's Fight got a check for a little over $1,200. I was slightly disappointed we didn't have more turnout but other than that it was a good night.

Man, things have only gotten tougher for this family. Emily's aunt (her Mom's sister) died in a car accident on her way to work early Monday morning. Just terrible. Also, Emily's health hasn't been good. Her white blood cell counts are low so she had to stop chemotherapy for a time, and also couldn't come to school (basically had to stay away from all germs). Just a tough tough time...