@FlamesMOTB: How you can help FlamesNation in supporting Kids Up Front Calgary

Tomorrow is a big day. It’s the beginning of the hockey season as the Calgary Flames host the Vancouver Canucks. If there’s one thing we love more at FlamesNation than hockey – and perhaps more than humbling Vancouver – it’s sharing our love of hockey with others. That’s where you come in, gang.

Our goal tomorrow is to enjoy a fine 60 minutes of the most perfect sport in the world (ice hockey), but also to raise some funds for a really deserving cause that does a great deal of good in the local Calgary area. We call it Flames Money on the Board.

So, tomorrow evening, as the Calgary Flames do battle with the dastardly Canucks, we hope you’ll join us in raising some funds for Kids Up Front Calgary and enjoy the hockey game knowing you’re also helping out some really deserving young people in your community.

Money on the Board is an old-school idea converted into a new-school fund-raising tool. It stems from the old locker room practice of a player literally putting some money up by the locker room blackboard or whiteboard if a teammate can score a big goal or lay out an opponent with a big hit – typically when playing against a key rival or an old team. A Flames/Canucks match-up fits this concept like a glove. The great @BonksMullet is an old pro at this, and is consulting with the Nations on this project because he’s a fine man who likes hockey and charity-fundraising. (And mullets.)

What we’re asking you to do is to make a pledge that’s tied to a
likely in-game event on Wednesday night, and then follow through by
donating the appropriate amount to Kids Up Front Calgary.

In the playoffs, Flames fans marveled as Micheal Ferland introduced himself to the world by clobbering Canucks players, and transformed from “irrelevant” to an NHL regular. So to commemorate the first regular season Flames/Canucks meeting, FlamesNation.ca is donating a cool $20 for every hit Ferland officially registers during the game.

In addition, because it’s Sam Bennett’s second NHL contest and he’s still getting his feet wet, I’m personally donating $5 to Kids Up Front Calgary for every shot on goal he registers.

You don’t have to focus in on one player, though, you can do a team
level pledge. In fact, the pledges are completely customizable! You can play around with the Google Pledge form we’ve put together here! 

Make a pledge and then let us know about it on Twitter by tweeting at the @FlamesMOTB account. Share your pledge with friends and encourage them to join in!

After
the game we’ll compile all of the pledges we’ve received in a
spreadsheet (we’re good at that) and send you an e-mail with a link
directing you to make the donation directly to Kids Up Front Calgary.
So no money will ever cross our hands. This is just about having fun,
raising money for a good cause, and taunting Canucks fans (good-naturedly) in the process.

Not
only do you get to talk smack and root harder for your favourite Flames player on Wednesday if you participate, but you’ll also have a
chance to win cool prizes. We’re going to give away 10 Nations Gear
t-shirts to Money on the Board participants whose pledges result in a
donation in excess of $15. 

If you’d like to be entered into the
draw, just select “yes” on the google form and include your t-shirt size
and mailing address. 

So the Money on the Board drive will allow you to have fun, support a good cause, and look fly! There’s really no downside…

Here’s how you can help. Click on this google form and pick your pledge. Think up something funny and personal and likely to occur. Then tweet about it to @FlamesMOTB and to all of your friends on Twitter. Share it on facebook. Post your pledge to Reddit. Help us get the message out!

Then
on Wednesday night, track the game, and cheer hard for the Flames and
for your particular pledge to come through, and encourage others to join
in! 

Then when you get the e-mail from us on Thursday linking you to the Kids Up Front Calgary,
actually donate the amount you pledged. And then maybe we’ll mail you a
t-shirt. Either way we’ll send you good vibes and our gratitude. 

We’re
hopeful that this will be a fun way to kick off a new season. We can’t
tell you how much we appreciate the support and readership we receive
from the FlamesNation community, and we’re hopeful that with the Flames
Money on the Board pledge drive, we can begin to give back to a
community that has given us so much.