MHM 2018 Oct-digital
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HERB BROOKS FOUNDATION<br />
LEGACY LIVES ON IN FOUNDATION DESIGNED TO ADVANCE THE GAME OF HOCKEY<br />
Continued from previous page<br />
Herb Brooks Foundation. “Even though we use<br />
hockey as our platform, the goal is to help young<br />
people who might not have the means or the access<br />
to participate in sports in general and hockey in<br />
specifics.”<br />
The foundation does a lot of work now for kids<br />
who haven’t had much experience in hockey, but it<br />
started over 30 years ago in a somewhat different<br />
capacity.<br />
As the foundation existed 30 years ago, it was<br />
a fund for a scholarship for some high school<br />
students to keep playing hockey.<br />
“My dad had a foundation that he started in<br />
1986 to raise money for myself and some other top<br />
seniors in the state … so we could go play in these<br />
various [hockey] tournaments around the country,”<br />
said Dan Brooks, Herb’s son. “His buddies helped<br />
raise money, so we could go play.”<br />
Now that Dan is beyond his playing days, the<br />
foundation has changed tunes back to getting kids<br />
involved with the game of hockey.<br />
Herb’s friends kept the foundation operating<br />
until his death in 2003, then they turned it over to<br />
Dan. He then went and renamed it the Herb Brooks<br />
Foundation, worked closely with the National<br />
Sports Center in Blaine, Minn. and assembled a<br />
board of directors and got to work on keeping<br />
Herb’s legacy alive.<br />
Though the mission remains largely unchanged<br />
from the early years of the current state of the<br />
foundation 15 years ago, it has always been<br />
committed to getting young people into hockey.<br />
“We looked at trying to change the game of<br />
hockey itself, how the game was played” Dan<br />
Brooks said. “That was kind of a daunting task, so<br />
we just wanted to help kids, make people’s lives<br />
better through the game of hockey, and make the<br />
game of hockey better itself.”<br />
That mission of helping kids through the game<br />
of hockey isn’t better explained than their mission<br />
statement on the foundation’s website.<br />
“Introducing, providing, and maintain a variety<br />
of hockey-related opportunities, at no cost, for our<br />
youth — while growing the game.”<br />
Those hockey-related opportunities are not hard<br />
to find, either. The foundation runs summer and<br />
winter clinics each year, with multiple locations<br />
throughout the Twin Cities, primarily Minneapolis<br />
and St. Paul.<br />
Kalli Funk is Rink Rats program director for the<br />
Herb Brooks Foundation. She has lived the life of a<br />
young hockey player in the Twin Cities. As a player<br />
from Roseville, she made her way through the<br />
Roseville hockey association, Cretin-Derham Hall,<br />
then moved on to college to play at St. Cloud State<br />
before competing overseas.<br />
Once back in the United States, Funk was put<br />
in touch with the former executive director of the<br />
foundation, John McClellan, while she was coaching<br />
the girls’ team at Cretin and she became involved<br />
with the hockey side of the Foundation’s efforts.<br />
“This summer, at our St. Paul clinic, we had a lot<br />
of learn to skate participants, [that’s] kids who are<br />
just starting out skating” Funk said. “When I first<br />
started with the organization, I saw a few more kids<br />
who had been skating for a while.”<br />
In July, the foundation held a summer clinic<br />
twice a week for the whole month at the Charles<br />
M. Schulz Arena in Highland Park. Those clinics<br />
had learn to skate, power skating and learn to play<br />
hockey clinics. Kids as young as five years old and<br />
kids into their teens participated in each clinic to<br />
start playing hockey.<br />
The foundation doesn’t just put on summer<br />
hockey clinics, though. This winter, at three<br />
locations around St. Paul, the foundation will host<br />
clinics throughout January and February.<br />
Funk said unequivocally why she does this job is<br />
because of the difference she sees with the kids.<br />
“That’s why I do what I do. Just seeing the<br />
reaction, the belief that they can do it, you get chills<br />
down your spine,” Funk said. “We’re not trying to<br />
raise the next NHL star in our foundation, but just<br />
seeing that kids believe in themselves, then it’s one<br />
more thing they’re able work hard in and put their<br />
mind to it.”<br />
From the parents’ reactions to their kids at these<br />
clinics is another humbling experience for Funk.<br />
“The biggest reaction I see is gratitude,” Funk<br />
said. “They’re always so thankful that we offer these<br />
clinics, and especially, everything we offer is free<br />
of charge to them, so they’re so grateful that we’re<br />
able to do this.”<br />
Beyond the on-ice help, these clinics are free<br />
to the participants and their families. The money<br />
has to come from somewhere. So where does the<br />
money come from?<br />
That’s where executive director Jon Cherney<br />
comes back in. While he doesn’t get involved with<br />
the on-ice clinics, he is integral to the business side<br />
of the foundation and getting businesses to partner<br />
with the foundation and help provide money to<br />
accomplish the mission.<br />
“Hockey’s expensive,” Cherney said. “Thankfully<br />
we’ve got a lot of generous people, both donors<br />
and sponsors who have supported our cause over<br />
the years, but we need to do more.”<br />
Cherney said the foundation needs to expand<br />
its sponsor and donor base by asking people to<br />
help the cause who might have not been a part of<br />
the foundation before. Though he is a ‘walking PR<br />
campaign,’ Cherney said that usually once people<br />
hear what the foundation does, they are eager to<br />
get involved any way they can.<br />
One of the marquee events for the foundation<br />
each year is the Herb Brooks Celebrity Golf Classic.<br />
This summer, it took place at Victory Links Golf<br />
Course in Blaine, adjacent to the National Sports<br />
Center, where the foundation is headquartered.<br />
The event featured some high-profile hockey<br />
stars such as Jake Guentzel and Ryan Suter, along<br />
with coaches and other figures around the hockey<br />
world. In addition to the celebrities present at the<br />
golf classic, there were the sponsors; for the holes,<br />
the driving range, the putting green. All of it was<br />
in part to raise more money for the foundation to<br />
continue to provide those hockey opportunities<br />
for free.<br />
“We think going forward, we need to have big<br />
events all the time [in addition to the golf outing,]”<br />
Cherney said. “All of our events, I believe are big<br />
events. Some of them raise some more money than<br />
others … but when we’re out in the community, it’s<br />
a big deal.”<br />
Cherney said the golf classic had over 30<br />
foursomes to raise the foundations profile, but also<br />
to raise money with the sponsors and entry fees for<br />
what really matters: the kids.<br />
“What all that does is it allows us to raise money<br />
so that we can buy ice time, we can buy equipment,<br />
uniforms, provide coaching for the kids who might<br />
not be able to do so into the coming school year,”<br />
Cherney said.<br />
For the future of the foundation, Cherney wants<br />
to expand. Though the foundation now has a scope<br />
of both the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs, he<br />
wants the foundation to have a footprint in places<br />
beyond the metro area.<br />
Moving to cities to fundraise beyond Minnesota,<br />
including Chicago and Boston, could be plans for<br />
the foundation in the future.<br />
“The biggest<br />
reaction I see<br />
is gratitude.<br />
They’re always<br />
so thankful<br />
that we offer<br />
these clinics,<br />
and especially,<br />
everything<br />
we offer is<br />
free of charge<br />
to them...”<br />
— Kalli Funk<br />
Beyond expansion, though, the goal is still to<br />
live on Herb’s legacy and provide kids with access<br />
to hockey. That isn’t lost on Ross Bernstein, a<br />
bestselling author and Board President of the Herb<br />
Brooks Foundation, who knows what it means to<br />
play hockey the way Herb would have taught.<br />
“That was Herbie’s thing, play the game the right<br />
way,” Bernstein said. “We try to instill a lot of those<br />
values.”<br />
As for the end goal of Herb’s legacy, it is still<br />
living through the existence and acts of the<br />
foundation named after him.<br />
“He really had a profound impact on a lot of<br />
people,” Bernstein said. “I’ve interviewed hundreds<br />
of people: players, coaches, neighbors, family<br />
members, everyone just had a crazy, unique story<br />
about how Herbie touched their lives, how he had<br />
made a difference.” 6<br />
OCTOBER <strong>2018</strong> MINNESOTA HOCKEY MAGAZINE MINNESOTA HOCKEY MAGAZINE OCTOBER <strong>2018</strong><br />
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