TVOS and Fan-tastic Sports - My Vote For Ottawa's All-Stars - The Capital City Condors

Ryan and Isaac from Ottawa's Capital City Condors
(Photo courtesy of Jim Perkins)

Every Wednesday, I share my thoughts from inside the NHL Alumni Association and from around today's NHL at Peter Ing and Bryce Salvador's Fan-tastic Sports XHockey blog. This week - My vote for Ottawa's All-Stars - The Capital City Condors hockey program for children with special needs.


There is an air of excitement in Canada’s capital city as we prepare to host the NHL’s All-Star game at the end of the month. The votes have been cast for the starting lineup, the NHL has filled in the rosters and there is no doubt that the NHL stars will shine when they arrive for the festivities. Since the theme of the month here in Ottawa is All-Stars, I would like to share a story about my favourite All-Stars – Jim and Shana Perkins and the Capital City Condors.

In December of 2010, AHL veteran Bryan Helmer sent an email out to friends, asking us to support the Capital City Condors as they took part in the Aviva Community Fund Challenge – an annual contest that awards funding to many worthy causes. As I clicked on the link Bryan sent, I began to learn more about the Condors program. It is not only a tremendous hockey program for Ottawa area children with special needs, but it opened my eyes to a problem in our hockey-mad culture that I did not realize existed – not everyone that wants to play hockey as a child has the opportunity to do so.

Read the entire article at the XHockey blog