Coach4Food with a Hitch

One of Canada’s greatest hockey coaches is jumping on board the Coach4food express.

Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock is doing a U-Need-A-Cab sponsored Coach4food PSA on the airwaves locally and is offering Blue Jackets memorabilia up for auction to help the unique fundraiser.

The following items will be up for auction on both Rogers Radio and Moose FM:

2 TICKETS, OTTAWA-COLUMBUS GAME, NOVEMBER 26th
1 AUTOGRAPHED STEVE MASON JERSEY (NHL CALDER TROPHY WINNER LAST YR)
1 AUTOGRAPHED CAPTAIN RICK NASH JERSEY
1 KEN HITCHCOCK AUTOGRAPHED TEAM CANADA OLYMPIC JERSEY

Hitchcock got wind of the initiative through his assistant coach Gary Agnew who worked alongside Hedican with the OHL’s London Knights in the mid 1990’s.

“He knew about Coach4Food because he too is a big Bruce Springsteen fan and Gary had related the story about 'The Boss' reading about Coach4Food and inviting Nancy Ann and I to meet him before his concert in Giants Stadium in New Jersey,” Hedican explained in an email Friday afternoon about the initiative that was inspired by Bruce Springsteen's work with Food Banks in the U.S.

Coach4Food, whereby teams are put through a practice of professional European and NHL skill drills on their own ice time, in exchange for non-perishable food items for the food bank (money is also accepted on behalf of the food bank), has collected more than 100,000 pounds of food in its first four years of existence. That amount includes 17,000 pounds collected last year in New Jersey where the New Jersey Devils participated in the program.

Hedican, who is a goaltender consultant in Europe will be once again spending the entire month of December running practices to raise money for the North Bay Food Bank.