Capitals Team Up with Willie O\'Ree in Community Events
Published on November 18, 2004 under ECHL (ECHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. â The Washington Capitals joined former San Diego Gull Willie O'Ree, the first black player in the NHL and director of youth development for NHL Diversity, in three Washington, D.C., area events, an assembly at Hutchison Elementary School, a clinic and check presentation at Fort Dupont Ice Arena and a speaking engagement at DiPietro Family Skating Center.
All the events took place Nov. 11, as O'Ree visited Hutchison Elementary School in Herndon, Va., took part in a $13,000 check presentation for Fort Dupont Hockey Club in Washington, D.C., and donated $3,000 worth of equipment on behalf of the NHL to Baltimore Youth Hockey.
O'Ree began his day at Hutchison Elementary School with Washington Capitals radio play-by-play broadcaster Steve Kolbe, Capitals mascot Slapshot and Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Program founder and former professional hockey player Neal Henderson. Kolbe emceed this assembly for the entire student body (approximately 640 kindergarten through sixth-grade students) that featured O'Ree talking about breaking the color barrier in the NHL, his hockey experiences and the importance of education. Henderson spoke to the students about youth hockey and encouraged them to get involved. O'Ree and Henderson both answered students' questions, and Kolbe ended the assembly by thanking the school and announcing that the NHL had donated several copies of The Autobiography of Willie O'Ree: Hockey's Black Pioneer to Hutchison's library, and that O'Ree will provide autographs for every student who checks out and reads the book during this school year.
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