During a game on Jan. 31, in which the Rock Lobsters defeated the Baton Rouge Zydeco by a final score of 4-1, the fundraiser partnered with Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful, a nonprofit that specializes in litter prevention, waste management and the beautification of Athens-Clarke County.
During the second intermission of their home games at Akins Ford Arena, the Rock Lobsters hosted their Chuck-A-Puck fundraiser, where fans purchased plush pucks to throw on the ice in hopes of landing their puck on a certain area of the ice that grants them a prize. 50% of the proceeds from the event go to local nonprofit organizations.
Securing Chuck-A-Puck partners was an early season goal for Lindsey Bornhorst, the Rock Lobsters’ director of social and community relations.
“I just was cold calling, emailing, reaching out to nonprofits in the area, which there’s so many in Athens, so it wasn’t hard to find different organizations,” Bornhorst said.
[Chuck-A-Puck] is actually a timeless hockey tradition, at least in the minor leagues, but not a lot of people know about it.”
Stacy Smith, the program coordinator for Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful, said that the partnership between the two organizations began earlier this season with the Rock Lobsters joining Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful’s Adopt-A-Highway program.
The Adopt-A-Highway program is a litter prevention effort that allows volunteers to be involved with roadside cleanup efforts.
“We work a lot with businesses, helping them with volunteer type events. The Rock Lobsters are a part of our Adopt-A-Highway program, and so that was kind of one of our main tie-ins,” Smith said. “And then our nonprofit board is always looking for ways to raise funds, and so we signed up for the Chuck-A-Puck program.”
The funds raised from the event will help Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful with a number of their programs.
“We do a number of things with that money,” Smith said. “All kinds of things, you could just boil it down to litter abatement and beautification.”
Litter prevention is an important task for Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful, as litter can lead to pollution in the air, soil and water. Preventing litter will lead to a more healthy and sustainable environment.
The nonprofits pitch into the event by having members prepare the pucks that eventually get thrown on the ice by fans and collecting them once the event is over.
“You bring your volunteers there from your organization. And what they do is they spend a lot of time taping tickets to the pucks that they’re selling, and then are interacting with the crowd to sell the pucks,” Smith said. “When they get to the part of the game where they throw the pucks, then your volunteers help to pick those up.”
There are two separate ways that the organizations raise money during the fundraiser. First, the nonprofit themselves can sell tickets to the game, and for every ticket that they sell, they receive $5 back to their organization from the team.
Second, they receive 50% of the proceeds from Chuck-A-Pucks sold, with the other 50% going to the Rock Lobsters.
“We are a community first organization. We’ve tried to be that from the beginning. And one of the best forms of feedback that I have gotten, and I’ve gotten often, is that, ‘You guys not only talk about being involved in the community, but you are really involved,’” Bornhorst said. “It’s super important to me that we do give back as much, because Athens is a really tight knit community, and they are all about businesses working together, nonprofits working together, businesses and nonprofits working together.”
Bornhorst said by the end of the entire fundraiser, the nonprofits usually receive about $1,500.
Midway through their season, the Rock Lobsters have raised over $17,000 for nonprofits with their Chuck-A-Puck fundraisers.
Andrew Fleming is a senior majoring in journalism at the University of Georgia.
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