A major blow for a long-time running fundraiser.
This year's edition of Hockey for Hospice has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Co-chair Paul Pietraszko says the cancellation hits extra hard as this would have been the 25th anniversary of the tournament which features as many as 2,000 kids hitting the ice for a good cause.
Pietraszko says Ontario Minor Hockey isn't allowing any tournaments to move forward.
"We actually had a meeting earlier this week amongst the committee and made the very troubling decision to cancel the tournament," he says. "Currently, Ontario Minor Hockey is not even allowing any tournaments or jamborees at this time. They're wanting to wait to see what happens when they actually open up minor hockey in December."
Pietraszko says safety remains priority one.
"When you have upwards of 1,400 to 1,600 kids running through the arenas, you have 8,000 to 9,000 fans attending, you can't have that under the current conditions. The responsible thing is to not put people in the position where they could get sick," he says.
Pietraszko says they did explore other options.
"Being that it is our 25th, we thought if we really can't hold the tournament we were trying to push for something that might be different, but we just could not come up with something that would involve hockey, the kids and raising some money for Hospice," he says.
Last year the tournament brought in more than $372,000 for the Hospice of Windsor and Essex County.
Since it began 25 years ago, the event has raised close to $3.7-million.
With files from Rob Hindi