On Saturday, the Rail Yard Dawgs will take on the Macon Mayhem at the Berglund Center.
It won’t just be a normal game, however. It will be the Stick it to Cancer game.
Ahead of Saturday’s game, fans flocked to the Berglund Center to take part in the “Paint the Ice” event, painting names and messages into the ice in support of people whose lives have been touched by cancer.
Fans got in by making a donation to the American Cancer Society. After that, they got their paint and got to work.
Chad Sink and his family painted for Brynlee Watt, a girl with a brain tumor whose family will be dropping the puck tomorrow.
“She’s a little girl from our area from Buchanan. She had a brain tumor and she had surgery a little while back,” Sink said. “So she’s in remission of it, I think they got it all out. She’s actually dropping the puck tomorrow, or she’s not her family is, she can’t be here she has more treatments that she is doing in DC tomorrow.”
Ceira Webb and Tinsley Dunbar honored two people with their paint.
“She’s an amazing person and we lost her a while back and we really miss her,” Webb said. “Then my best friend’s mom is fighting cancer right now as we speak.”
The names and messages will get thin layers of water put over them to freeze into the surface.
Half an inch of ice will be added over so they don’t impact gameplay, while preserving the paint so everyone can see the people whose lives have been touched by cancer.
“It’s one of the cool things about this event. I’ll spend my night just walking around talking to people while they’re putting the names on the ice,” Rail Yard Dawgs President Mickey Gray said. “Everybody has their own personal story for their loved one and it’s kind of nice to share those.”
Special game-worn jerseys will be auctioned off after the game, with the proceeds going towards the American Cancer Society.