True North Sports + Entertainment donates proceeds from inaugural WASAC Night and Follow Your Dreams Day to WASAC

True North Sports + Entertainment’s partnership with the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sports Achievement Centre (WASAC) was further celebrated on Tuesday, Aug. 20 when nearly $16,000 was presented to the youth-focused organization. The funds were raised during the inaugural Winnipeg Jets WASAC Night and Manitoba Moose Follow Your Dreams Day, which were held on Feb. 16 and 17, 2019.

The campaigns celebrate Indigenous culture in Manitoba and are part of the NHL’s “This is Hockey” initiative which promotes diversity and inclusiveness in hockey. The 2019 initiative brought kids from northern Indigenous communities to see the WASAC Night and Follow Your Dreams Day games as well as participate in extra activities including the Jets gameday skate and a skating session and pre-game Q & A with Indigenous NHL alumni. The funds raised from those games will help more youth from northern Indigenous communities have the opportunity to attend these games this coming season. The donated funds were raised from the sale of special edition t-shirts with Indigenous-themed Jets and Moose logos to commemorate WASAC Night and Follow Your Dreams Day.

The teams will again host these commemorative games during the 2019-20 season. The Jets will start the celebrations on Jan. 17, 2020 with WASAC Night when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Moose will follow on Jan. 18, 2020 when they host the Laval Rocket. New for this season, both teams will wear special edition jerseys with the Indigenous-themed logos; the Jets will wear them for warm up at WASAC Night, and the Moose will wear their jerseys for the entire game on Follow Your Dreams Day. Both sets of jerseys will be auctioned off following the games with the proceeds again benefiting WASAC. In addition to the jerseys, an extended retail program will accompany the promotional games in January 2020.