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Newfoundland dad builds backyard rink, raises almost $115,000 for children’s charities

The 'Reason for the Rink' project come to life.

Todd Churchill, a father of two from Portugal Cove – St. Philips, Newfoundland and Labrador, spends his winter nights working on a backyard rink that’s raised almost $115,000 for the children’s charities that have helped his youngest son.

In 2011, Todd Churchill’s son Carter was born with life-threatening complications: a brain bleed, enlarged heart, breathing problems, and low blood pressure.

“In the first week, it was not even certain that he would live,” Churchill wrote in an email to Yahoo Canada News. “It was two weeks before we were even able to hold him for the first time because of his critical condition.”

After a month in the NICU at Janeway Children’s Hospital in St. John’s, Carter was finally released.

This wasn’t the end of his challenges, however. He was later diagnosed as profoundly deaf and with cerebral palsy.

“Any special needs parent will tell you that it is so frustrating and disheartening to be in a position that you cannot do anything to help your child. If there was a piece of me that I [could] cut off and transplant to him I would do it or any place I could take him for treatments, I would mortgage our house to pay for it,” Churchill wrote.

Carter is now using a walker to get around, and attends weekly therapy appointments at the hospital. He can hear functionally thanks to a cochlear implant and is beginning to say occasional words.

“Carter is a special little boy for many reasons outside of this conditions. While he lives with huge challenges, he is a very determined to do the things he wants to do, which usually means getting into cupboards, etc. and making a mess,” the proud father wrote.

Churchill and his wife, Kimberly, decided to dedicate themselves to helping charities that support children like Carter.

In 2012, Churchill, a professional engineer, envisioned a unique — and labour-intensive — fundraising project he could build in his own backyard: A skating rink, complete with boards, lines and logos.

He called the project “Reason for the Rink.”

“The idea was that I would generate donations for the charities by selling advertising space on my boards,” he wrote.

“My initial goal was $7,000 which would come from 35 ads at $200 per ad and I considered this to be optimistic at the time as I had never really fundraised to that extent before,” said Churchill.

"My secondary goal was to increase awareness of the charities since before Carter was born and we got involved with them I had known very little about these charities. I thought that if I was so unaware, a lot of the general public was probably the same.

"To generate this awareness, I embedded the charity logos in the ice as well as started the Reason for the Rink website to provide some information on the charities and links to their own websites.”

Once local media began covering Churchill’s impressive backyard construction project, local businesses and national media took notice. It wasn’t long before support and donations started pouring in, surpassing Churchill’s original fundraising goals.

Churchill insists that all of the money donated goes to children’s charities. He pays for the rink’s upkeep himself.

“Since my modest plans in 2012, Reason for the Rink has gone on to raise almost $115,000 for Easter Seals NL, Rainbow Riders Therapeutic Riding NL, Mazol Shriners and the Cerebral Palsy Association of NL. These are all charities that provide support to Carter and help him to be the best that he can be,” Churchill wrote.

“I am very happy and proud to say that 100% of all donations received through my project have benefited the charities. I am often asked if any of the donations were used to build the rink, maintain it, etc. and I can honestly say no. I used my own money to build the rink and I always insist that all donations to Reason for the Rink be made via cheque payable to one of my rink charities or through one of the online donation pages that Easter Seals NL creates to support my charity hockey games.”

Keeping the sticks on the ice

Maintaining the rink is no easy task — and often keeps Churchill up into the wee hours of the morning.

“I try not to spend time working on the maintenance of the rink while the boys … are up so usually my routine is come home from work, have supper with the family, spend some quality time with both boys and then by the time they go to bed and I get geared up to go outside it is 9:30 p.m. or 10:00 p.m., if the weather is favourable, it is not unusual for me to be out there watering or snow clearing until 2 a.m. or later.

“Earlier in the week I had been up until 3 a.m. on two nights and then went to bed and got up at 7 a.m. to go to work,” he added. “People ask me how I can go on with next to no sleep and I tell them that Carter fuels and motivates me. When he flashes one of his smiles, he makes me feel like I could do anything!”

Last year, Churchill’s rink hosted the Easter Seals sledge hockey kids, giving some of the young players their first opportunity to skate on outdoor ice. The rink also hosts a number of Winter Classic-style charity hockey games throughout the winter.

Thanks to a donated live HD rink cam, people from all over the world can catch the games. (Like tonight’s game airing at 8 p.m. Newfoundland time. Watch it here.)

Churchill is now dreaming even bigger.

“My lifetime goal would be to raise $1,000,000 for charity and as long as there is interest, I will keep doing Reason for the Rink,” he wrote.

Want to contribute to Churchill’s cause?

Leading up to Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada on February 14th, Scotiabank will be matching all donations dollar-for-dollar made to the Scotiabank Winter Classic website created by Churchill for Easter Seals NL.

Find out more here.

And learn more about Churchill’s rink at www.reasonfortherink.com or on Facebook here.