NHL Stars’ Jer­seys Found a Home at OYS Children’s Hos­pi­tal

The NHL Char­i­ty All Stars game, held in Oulu in ear­ly August, brought togeth­er Finnish hock­ey icons and fans in sup­port of a mean­ing­ful cause. On August 25, the jer­seys worn in the game by Sebas­t­ian Aho and Pekka Rinne were donat­ed to OYS Children’s Hos­pi­tal to bring joy to its young patients.

On Fri­day, August 8, a rare ice hock­ey match took place at Oulun Ener­gia Are­na, where Finnish NHL stars faced off against Oulu’s local team, Oulun Kär­pät. The pro­ceeds from this NHL Char­i­ty All Stars match were direct­ed to Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal (OYS) Children’s Hos­pi­tal as well as Oulun Kärpät’s youth hock­ey pro­grams, where they help to low­er par­tic­i­pa­tion fees.

The char­i­ty work of local hock­ey stars con­tin­ued on Sat­ur­day in Vir­pinie­mi, where the All Stars Char­i­ty Golf Oulu tour­na­ment was held for the tenth time. The event was orig­i­nal­ly found­ed a decade ago by long­time NHL play­ers Jus­si Joki­nen and Pekka Rinne.

– To cel­e­brate the tenth anniver­sary, we thought we want­ed to do some­thing spe­cial in addi­tion to the tra­di­tion­al golf tour­na­ment. In the end, we man­aged to orga­nize a game where NHL play­ers from the Oulu area, along with a cou­ple of oth­er rein­force­ments, would play against Oulun Kär­pät, Joki­nen said, describ­ing the back­ground of the char­i­ty match.

In addi­tion to Joki­nen and Rinne, Sebas­t­ian Aho, Markus Nuti­vaara, Jani Hakan­pää, and Niko Mikko­la are cur­rent­ly also involved in the oper­a­tion of All Stars Char­i­ty Golf Oulu. In pre­vi­ous years, recip­i­ents of dona­tions have includ­ed, among oth­ers, ODL and Hope ry.

– From the very begin­ning, we have want­ed to help and sup­port the chil­dren and young peo­ple liv­ing in the Oulu area, Joki­nen stat­ed.

From the Ice to OYS Children’s Hos­pi­tal

The main part­ner of the char­i­ty match, the City of Oulu, received two auto­graphed jer­seys at the event. One belongs to Sebas­t­ian Aho, who plays for the Car­oli­na Hur­ri­canes, and the oth­er to for­mer goalie Pekka Rinne, who had a long career with the Nashville Preda­tors.

– Since the pur­pose of the whole match was char­i­ty and the focus was on chil­dren and young peo­ple, we want­ed to donate the jer­seys to OYS Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal, said Johan­na Kamunen, Place Mar­ket­ing Man­ag­er at Business­Oulu.

After a few phone calls, a place was found for Aho and Rin­ne’s jer­seys at the OYS Chil­dren’s Hema­tol­ogy and Oncol­o­gy Depart­ment.

Sebas­t­ian Aho, orig­i­nal­ly from Oulu, has played in the NHL since 2016. Pho­to: Hen­ri Korho­nen / HL Foto

The jer­seys were offi­cial­ly hand­ed over on Mon­day, August 25th, at a warm-heart­ed event attend­ed by rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the City of Oulu, hos­pi­tal staff, patients and their fam­i­lies. Jus­si Joki­nen and Sebas­t­ian Aho also took part in the event.

– I’m from Oulu and have received a lot from this city, so sup­port­ing a local char­i­ty always feels like a nat­ur­al choice for me. In addi­tion, chil­dren have always been close to my heart – per­haps even more so now that we had our own daugh­ter 3.5 months ago, new father Aho told at the event.

– Hope­ful­ly, through this vis­it, we can also bring a pos­i­tive sparkle to the day of both the patients and staff.

Head nurse Kat­ja Kåhlman-Lukin thanked the City of Oulu for the jer­seys, as well as Joki­nen and Aho for their vis­it.

– Some of the lit­tle guys here have been eager­ly wait­ing for this vis­it. I already heard peo­ple in the hall­way ask­ing when the hock­ey play­ers would arrive.

Sup­port That Real­ly Mat­ters

OYS Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal received an equip­ment dona­tion fund­ed by the pro­ceeds of the char­i­ty hock­ey match: a pedi­atric trans­port res­pi­ra­tor, which ensures a child’s breath­ing dur­ing trans­port. It allows crit­i­cal­ly ill new­borns to be trans­ferred to OYS as quick­ly and safe­ly as pos­si­ble.

– We con­sult­ed the Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal in advance about what they would need. It’s won­der­ful that Oulu has such a high-qual­i­ty hos­pi­tal, and that we have also been able to sup­port it through our con­tri­bu­tion, Joki­nen said.

In addi­tion, 30,000 euros were donat­ed to the Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal from the pro­ceeds of the All Stars Char­i­ty Golf Oulu event.

Atte Ohta­maa from Oulun Kär­pät, Han­nu Hilli, chair­man of Oulun Kär­pät 46 ry, and Sebas­t­ian Aho and Pekka Rinne pre­sent­ed a dona­tion check for the children’s hos­pi­tal. The check was received by Suvi Mat­ti­la from OYS Pae­di­atric and Youth Emer­gency Clin­ic. Pho­to: Hen­ri Korho­nen / HL Foto

Riit­ta Niin­imä­ki, Chief Physi­cian of the Chil­dren’s Hema­tol­ogy and Oncol­o­gy Depart­ment, thanked Joki­nen, Aho, and oth­er ice hock­ey play­ers for their sup­port and for bring­ing joy to the young patients and their fam­i­lies.

– In addi­tion to finan­cial sup­port, vis­its also play a big role. Just like Sebas­t­ian said, vis­its bright­en up many peo­ple’s days here. Chil­dren may be in care for long peri­ods of time, so it’s impor­tant that they have some­thing to be excit­ed about and look for­ward to.

Accord­ing to Niin­imä­ki, the local hock­ey stars set a great exam­ple. They also serve as role mod­els for chil­dren, show­ing that peo­ple from Oulu and North­ern Fin­land can go far.

– The work that you do is tru­ly mean­ing­ful. Warm thanks for that.