Local Hockey Tournament Raises $21,000 For A Special Cause

Tears flowed yet there were smiles too.  The 11th annual Jeffrey B. Scott Memorial Hockey Tournament honors a young man who died too soon from a heart defect.  The 21-thousand-dollars raised over the course of the Cheektowaga tournament goes towards making sure no one else will have to suffer the same loss.

Jeffrey Scott loved sports, especially hockey.  Jeffrey's final day was spent playing a game of street hockey with his friends - including his best friend, Dave Miller.  Miller says Jeffrey scored the winning goal, they high-fived each other and laid down on the ground staring up at the sky talking like kids do.  Only moments later, when Jeffrey stopped talking did Miller realize what had happened.  Jeffrey wasn't breathing.  Family and friends would later learn that Jeffrey died of a heart defect.

Twenty years later, Miller and  Jeffrey's brother,  Christopher, organized the first Jeffrey B. Scott Memorial Hockey Tournament.  They started out initially raising money for heart research, but then three years ago they began working with the Madison McCarthy Cardiac Care Coalition for Children with the idea to purchase Automated External Defibrillators. (AEDs are portable devices used to diagnose and treat cardiac arrhythmia or cardiac arrest.)  The goal, Miller says, is to make sure every ice rink in the area and any other youth sports organization that would like one, has an AED.

The Tournament raised 21-thousand-dollars earlier this month and handed out several AEDs before the final championship game, including one to the family of a three-year-old girl who may not survive without one.  Miller says they are always looking for youth organizations in need of AEDs.  If you know a youth sports group with an interest in getting an AED, visit the Jeffrey B. Scott Memorial Hockey Tournament on the web or contact them via email at contact@jbsmemorial.com.

To date, the tournament has raised more than 140-thousand-dollars. The tournament is held in early March at the Cheektowaga Town Ice Rink.