Peer Edits 2

Kelly Brown

At the ages nine and twelve, B.J. and Emily Viau had to face an unfortunate reality; their mother had been diagnosed with Huntington's Disease. This disease is a combination of Parkinson's and Alzeihmer's, and causes its victim to progressively lose their mental and physical capabilities. In essence, B.J. and Emily were going to have to watch as they slowly lose their mom, and with no cure in sight.

Huntington's is a hereditary disease that multiple people from B.J. and Emily's family have suffered. It was a combination of this, B.J.'s love for his mother, and passion for basketball that led to the creation of the Hoop-A-Thon. The first year had only 50 people in attende
nce, and raised $5000. Twelve years later the Hoop-A-Thon is raising over $50000 and drawing a crowd around 5000.

This year the Hoop-A-Thon is experiencing a great deal of changes. One of the biggest is that many of father Brian's tasks will be passed down to Emily.All I can say is it's been a learning experience. As Emily describes the new experience she states, "I've been part of the planning before but I didn't have a true appreciation for the amount of time and effort that goes into this event until this year." With new leadership, other changes are naturally going to take place. Emily wants to "bring a fresh face to the event. The goal is to keep things similar enough so people recognize the event but different enough to keep them interested and wanting to come back next year with more donations!" Each alteration made is with the hope that the community will develop more of an awareness and understanding of Hoop-A-Thon and raise more money towards a cure.

Emily's brother, B.J. has a similar take. He seems to be most excited about the crowd that the changes will draw. Brian predicts that the, "The record crowd will be able to watch the Timberwolves 'Dunk Team', who put on an act dunking off trampolines from the FT line. We will stop the event and have everyone gather around for the entertainment." With all the new ideas that will chalge the event, B.J. will probably get his wish. Just for donating $25, a person will receive a gift bag with a T-shirt and other prizes including giftcards. Donate $100 and two Timbewolves tickets worth $44 will be added to your bag. Then, with new games for kids and adults alike, and a silent auction for the adults. The Hoop-A-Thon truly will have as Emily worded it a, "a new face."

Jordan Koplitz

XL hockey is a hockey league for kids between the ages of 13 and 18 years old. This hockey league is held at Mariucci Arena, which is the home of the Golden Gophers. It is every Sunday, usually it is between the times of 12:00pm and 8:30pm. This league is a great idea and it is really a great way to play hockey. This league is supposed to be a "no checking league" because they don’t want to have anyone get hurt. The XL hockey league has a camp in the summer to teach you how to be a better skater. This camp is obviously held in the summer and you can find more on the XL hockey website. This camp will teach you all the basics on how to get better on your skating and there will also be some famous hockey stars at this camp. The camp will have instructors such as Blake Wheeler, Nick Leddy, Evan Kauffman and many more great hockey players. XL hockey is a great sporting event, and if you are a fan of hockey but just don't have the time for it, this once a week program is for you. I interviewed some players in the league. First I interviewed Nate Kline, a junior at Eastview High School and I asked him why did you join XL hockey? He said that “I still want to play hockey and I couldn’t make junior varsity or varsity so I signed up for XL because it’s still hockey and it’s at Mariucci.” I also asked him, when did you start playing XL hockey? He said that “I have played for two years now.” I also interviewed Lucas Gansmoe, a freshman who is in his first year of playing XL hockey. I asked him, why you wanted to join XL hockey. He said that “I joined this league because I didn’t want to play another year of bantams and I wanted to try something different.”I also interviewed Josh Leddy, the manager of XL hockey. I asked him, how you came up with the idea of creating XL hockey. He told me, “I came up with of creating the XL hockey league by not being able to play competitive hockey anymore because I tore up my knee playing high school hockey and I got a full ride to Boston University, but I couldn’t accept it because of my injury. So I decided to make the league and I got permission a couple years ago and I created the league just like that.”