Proud Supporters of Fort Dupont
About 100 fans joined Coach Trotz, his wife Kim, son Nolan and daughter Shalan at the 8th annual Caps Care Day sponsored by Monumental Sports and Entertainment Foundation at Fort Dupont Ice Arena on Saturday June 3. Slapshot and the Red Rockers also were there to help.
Before the hard work started, the Fan Club presented a large check representing our $10,000 donation made by the Club earlier in the year. This was the donation made possible by our sale of the Caps autographed holiday ornaments.
On the agenda inside were painting the locker rooms, hallways and bathrooms, waxing the boards, cleaning the glass, re-stringing the goal nets, cleaning and organizing hockey equipment. On the agenda outside were cleaning and mulching of tree boxes, flower beds, weeding, sweeping the parking lot and sidewalks. All volunteers received a Caps volunteer T-shirt and a free lunch at the conclusion of the clean-up event.
Ft. Dupont Ice Arena is the only full-sized indoor ice arena in Washington DC. Their hockey team, The Cannons, are the oldest minority youth hockey program in the area.The Fan Club is proud to support an organization that teaches young people discipline, self esteem, and a sense of purpose and offer an incentive to excel academically. We have donated to many charity organizations over the years but FDIA Kids on Ice Program is the most appreciative charity we have ever supported.
On Saturday, July 29 the arena celebrated their 20th anniversary of their Kids On Ice programs. They estimate they have helped over 20,000 inner city children since 1996 and celebrated that fact with an old fashioned picnic and invited the Fan Club Board to join in the festivities. Chasta, Nancy, Vic and [Lottie] attended.
The event was catered by King Street Blues and after lunch we were treated with on ice exhibitions from the figure skating teams of all ages. Community awards were presented and afterwards the Fan Club was privately presented with the plaque below in appreciation of our continued support. We will proudly display the award at our Fan Club Table.
After the events were over we took a tour of their community garden. We were amazed at the size and ambition of the garden planted and managed by DC Urban Greens, a non-profit organization that strives to produce naturally grown fruits and vegetables on underutilized urban land. We met co-founders Julie Kirkwood and Vine Forte who enthusiastically explained their aim to grow healthy food in the neighborhoods that need it most – low income areas lacking easy access to grocery stores. They also train and employ low income DC residents to implement their work so they are growing people in addition to food. Deserving DC residents are given vouchers by the DC government to purchase the food. It is truly an impressive ventu
