Mark Donnelly "Mr. O Canada" at Game 3

My name is Pete Zubersky, I met and spoke with you several times when I was the General Manager of the Victoria Salsa, both at the Surrey and Victoria rinks.  We spoke often of your son who was a goaltender and was a 14-year-old at the time.

I own the Peninsula Panthers Junior "B" Hockey Team of the VIJHL with John Wilson and we are located at the Panorama Recreation Centre which is only minutes from the Ferry Terminal near Sidney.  I have two kids on our club who hail from Whitehorse - Joe Densmore who is 20 and David Stephens who is 18.  They live in Victoria with two other 20-year-olds from Whitehorse, all four of them attending the University of Victoria over here.  One of the fellows is named Aidan Love, just a fantastic kid who comes to most of the Panthers games to watch his buddies.

On February 14th Joe and David stayed in Victoria to play hockey while Aidan and their other friend/roomie went to Whistler for the weekend to snowboard.  Aidan is an awesome athlete and while coming down the hill he decided to cut into an area that was off the beaten track looking for more of a challenge.  He struck a tree and had to be removed to Vancouver Hospital and is now paralyzed from the chest down.  He has movement in his arms.  He is still in the hospital and apparently there is less than 1% chance he will regain his mobility.

We have fundraised for Joe and David so that financial considerations would not stop them from going to Vancouver as often as possible to visit their friend Aidan. We have had people from all over Canada assisting us, including hotel chains and BC Ferries.

We won the Best-of-7 round 1 against Oceanside and then were down to Saanich 3-1 in games in round 2.  Joe spoke with Aidan and Aidan said that he would leave hospital and come over and watch a game in the VIJHL finals if we could get by Saanich.  In game 5 we trailed 1-0 and tied it with under 30 seconds left and then won in overtime.  We won game 6 and then won game 7 late in Double Overtime.  We truly believe that someone is watching over our club from afar.

I have spoken with Bonnie Love, Aidan's mother and she was in Whitehorse trying to sell her house so that it is wheelchair accessible once he is able to return home.  She has agreed to return to Vancouver and is going to make arrangements to get Aidan from the hospital tomorrow (Friday) and bring him on the ferry to the our Game #3 of the VIJHL finals which will be at the Panorama.  Last season our captain was Evan Campbell and he too was from Whitehorse and he wore #11.  I am going to have an on-ice presentation and will give Bonnie Love a gift and gift Evan Campbell's #11 jersey to Aidan.  I will have Joe, David, Bonnie and Aidan speak and then I will have them all go to the blueline for the National Anthem.  No other players will be on the ice except for these three and they will be introduced as our starting lineup.

OK, I am asking that you come over for this game to sing our Anthem.  The importance of your appearance cannot be understated!  If you caught the 5:00 pm ferry we would have someone pick you up and would have you back on the 9:00 pm boat.  If you wanted to stay and bring your own wheels we would pick up all expenses including the ferry, hotel, food and whatever else you need.

Mark, you have no idea how much this would mean to our Organization but more and most importantly, to the Love family.  I would have all the local Media outlets at the game if you are here and I honestly cannot think of a more inspirational evening for a young man and his mother who have absolutely had their lives torn apart.

I have spoken to your agent twice now but I am sending this message so you can really grasp our situation.  I am looking forward to hearing back from you soon and once again, please consider this request.

Thank you in advance.

Pete Zubersky
Peninsula Panthers Junior "B" Hockey Club