Gulls Donate $230,000 to Community in 2019-20
Hockey club supported more than 40 local nonprofit organizations and ice rinks, and participated in more than 100 community events
Jul 21, 2020The San Diego Gulls, in conjunction with the American Hockey League (AHL) club’s San Diego Gulls Foundation, announced today that the organization donated $230,000 to the San Diego community during the 2019-20 season, including more than 40 San Diego nonprofit organization and local ice rinks. Since its inception in 2016, the San Diego Gulls Foundation has donated more than $521,000 in lifetime gifts to support the San Diego community.
INFOGRAPHIC: A closer look at our Foundation's charitable donations.
In 2019-20, the San Diego Gulls Foundation hosted five specialty jersey auctions. The specialty jersey auctions raised funds for the Armed Services YMCA and All-Star Vets (Military Weekend), Relay for Life San Diego (Hockey Fights Cancer), Rady Children’s Hospital (Star Wars Night), Susan G. Komen San Diego (Pink in the Rink) and the San Diego Gulls Foundation (80’s Night). Overall, $74,807 was raised via in-game fundraising, raffles and Surprise Puck sales.
Gulls players, coaches, staff, mascot Gulliver and Gulls Girls participated in more than 100 community events throughout the San Diego region last season, supporting Rady Children’s Hospital, Ronald McDonald House San Diego, the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, Armed Services YMCA’s Operation Hero, Susan G. Komen, Urban Street Angels, SEAL Family Foundation and the team’s Reading is the Goal program at local elementary schools. The fourth annual San Diego Gulls Golf Classic brought to you by San Diego Honda Dealers and the second annual San Diego Gulls Bowling Night contributed towards the funds raised in 2019-20.
The San Diego Gulls Foundation donated 3,800 tickets to Gulls games to the community and local nonprofits, 1,483 pieces of hockey equipment to six local ice rinks to support the growth of the sport in San Diego, 540 pounds of food to the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, 652 toys to Rady Children’s Hospital and school supplies to 59 classroom’s participating in Reading is the Goal.
Launched in 2018, Reading is the Goal is a fourth-grade reading program to promote literacy and the importance of reading. The program is open to all classrooms in the greater San Diego area and reached 1,913 students and accounted for an additional 1,283,961 minutes read from January to March this year. All participating classrooms received additional assistance in the form of needed school supplies, including composition books, pencils, pens, folders and hand sanitizer.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Diego Gulls Foundation has contributed more than $15,690 in support of local businesses, healthcare workers and first responders, in addition to a $5,370 donation to The San Diego Foundation’s COVID-19 Community Response Fund.
The San Diego Gulls Foundation and the team’s players’ direct donations provided more than 800 lunch and dinner meals to five San Diego hospitals, purchased from five local small business partners. The hockey club also served breakfast and coffee to 75 San Diego Police Dispatchers at SDPD Headquarters in recognition of Dispatchers Week. The Gulls coaching staff purchased and donated meals from a local restaurant to San Diego Ronald McDonald House after it transitioned to providing all to-go meals, both in the House and for day visitors, and the San Diego Gulls Foundation purchased and delivered 30 gallons of hand sanitizer from Liberty Call Distilling to Rady Children’s Hospital, providing a critical item of need for the hospital.
For more information on the San Diego Gulls Foundation, please visit SanDiegoGulls.com/community.
About the San Diego Gull Foundation
The San Diego Gulls Foundation serves as the team’s main charitable beneficiary. The mission of the San Diego Gulls Foundation is to facilitate and support programs that produce positive change for children and families throughout San Diego by providing educational opportunities, broadening access to the sport of hockey and addressing the health and wellness needs of our community. The San Diego Gulls serve the San Diego and Southern California community through a variety of charitable fundraisers, educational programs and outreach activities, with the organization's commitments ranging from in-kind donations, charity tickets, recreational and educational programs, and the dedicated involvement of players, coaches, broadcasters, staff and mascot.