The tournament was held March 25 and 26 at the Mel Hegland Uniplex in La Ronge. (Facebook/Crushers Hockey)

By Derek Cornet

andy clark

Memorial tournament reaches $30,000 donation mark

Mar 28, 2022 | 2:19 PM

The Crushers Hockey League just surpassed the $30,000 mark in donations for funds generated by the annual Andy Clark Memorial Hockey Tournament.

That’s according to organizer Brendon Zarazun, who explained the money was raised by various raffles and draw prizes throughout the last 12 years. This year, $1,250 was raised for Northern Animal Rescue (NAR) and the winning team at the tournament, the Rusty Elks, split their $1,000 prize evenly between NAR and NorthSask Special Needs Inc.

Four other teams competed March 26 and 26 including Teacherz, NAO OLEOS, The Lands and The Lakers.

“It’s always great seeing lots of friends, spouses, supporters of the tournament coming out and taking it all in,” Zarazun said. “We will be doing this event for as long as we can. I started playing hockey with Crushers years ago and it is an event we always look forward to. It’s the highlight event of the year for the league, so everybody looks forward to it, everyone has a blast and we do get to raise a lot of money for charity.”

Zarazun mentioned the tournament is a way to honour the late Andy Clark, who passed away in an aviation incident in 2006. He said Andy Clark was a man who loved hockey and animals and the tournament is a fitting way to remember him.

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“A lot of the friends he had at Northern Air Operations would play in the tournaments,” Zarazun said. “Because NAR is a foundation that was started by his family and Colleen (Clark), they thought at the time it would be a great way to bring Andy’s legacy together, but also do something good for his family’s organization.”

Brendon Zarazun presents Colleen Clark with the proceeds of the memorial tournament. The donation will benefit Northern Animal Rescue. (Facebook/Crushers Hockey)

On behalf of her family and NAR, Colleen Clark wanted to express gratitude for the continued donations and memorial tournament. She said it is an enjoyable event and she is glad to see in still happening.

“It’s quite the honour for the family for this to be in memory of him,” Clark said. “He coached hockey for many years. He played hockey himself like recreation hockey. He worked with a lot of the fellows who put on the tournament. A lot of them are from the aviation family, so they knew him well.”

Clark also called the tournament a reunion of sorts for his former co-workers and friends. With it being cancelled in 2021 due to COVID, she noted it was nice to see the visiting and activities occurring again this year.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno