The second annual Jack Lyons Memorial Hockey Tournament was as the event raised a significant amount of cash to help support One Kid's Place Autism programs.
The event took place on March 22 and involved 11 local schools.
The charity one-day hockey tournament was organized by a group of students from Chippewa, Lyons' family and One Kids Place as they created an inspiring hockey tournament with a very worthy cause.
The tournament is named after Jack Lyons, a 17-year-old who lived with autism and sadly passed away on April 24, 2022.
"It was really exciting to put this together, having 11 schools in the building and multiple organizations like the North Bay North Stars and the North Bay Battalion, it really means a lot for everybody to come together and honour Jack's life and raise autism awareness this way," said Mark Lyons, the driving force behind the event and father of Jack.
At One Kid's Place on Tuesday, organizers revealed that the event raised $15,000 for the cause for the second straight year.
Then, on Wednesday morning Lyons says they are adding another $5,000 to bring the total to $20,000.
"Beyond the cheque is the value of what we witnessed on that day," said Lyons.
"People cheering on a special needs hockey team, bringing together girls co-ed hockey, then girls and boys and look what it accomplished in NDA hockey it has never happened before and look at the change. This type of thing would not have happened 10 years ago."
See related: Another inspiring Jack Lyons Memorial Tournament
Jenna Wilson, one of the student organizers was a friend of Jack's.
Wilson was also one of the students who came up with the idea for a tournament in Jack's name last spring.
"It is really special to me, especially working for the One Kids Place Autism Programs as well, it is kind of a full circle moment, so raising $15,000 last year and then being able to top up $15,000 this year was super exciting," said Wilson.
"Working with kids with intellectual disabilities almost my whole life not has been a really big part of my life and then being able to give back in this way is really important to me."
With this kind of support, the event is expected to return again in 2025.
