The Wild Rose Hockey Challenge is shooting for a major fundraising target this year, MP Blake Richards announced earlier this month.“This year we have set an ambitious goal of raising $100,000 for local victims services units,” Richards said in a letter to past sponsors dated June 1.Last year's challenge raised $83,000 for the Chinook Arch Victim Services Society and similar groups operating in Bow Valley, Airdrie and Cochrane.“All four victim services units provide counselling for victims of crime, disaster and other tragedies, as well as advocacy for victims of crime,” Richards said in the letter.This year's challenge will be held Aug. 18 in Canmore.Since its inception four years ago, the charity hockey game has “grown by leaps and bounds,” Richards said in the letter.Last year Richards added some unexpected colour to the game when a puck fractured his nose and officials pulled him out of play due to the amount of blood on the ice from his injury.The MP posted a photo of his bloodstained hockey jersey on his Twitter site the next day and wrote casually about the fracture: “83k raised for Victims' Assistance, 1 broken nose, and loads of fun – priceless.”
