Earlier this week, I wrote about a Montreal Canadiens fan who had once sent a 16x20 photo to Ken Dryden so that he would autograph it for his nine-year-old son. That happened in 1997; nearly 30 years later, Paul Antoniadis is no longer asking for favours, he’s doing them.
The lifelong Habs fan heard about The Angel Project when he was at a sports bar in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. There was a notice about the Xhekaj brothers holding an autograph session to raise money for the registered non-profit organization. According to the organization’s website, they became aware of the organization when it helped their mother, who was suffering from cancer. Although he was unable to attend the event, Antoniadis read up on the organization and realized that it was a worthy cause.
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In short, The Angel Project is there to help those who are most in need, patients who need long-term specialized care and are struggling. It describes its own mission as follows:
The Angel Project brings comfort, support, and much more to patients living in the hospital with a variety of complex medical needs, who require 24-hour medical care. Most of these patients have few, if any, visitors. The Angel Project provides necessities, such as shampoo, shaving cream, or a soft blanket, and also offers the patients a chance for an outing away from the hospital once a year. Other items, such as a wheelchair or a poster for the bedside, are also given as needed. Every dollar raised by the Angel Project goes directly to support these patients and their ongoing needs.-
Since he couldn’t attend the signing event, Antoniadis decided to auction off seats to a Canadiens’ game, but not just any seats, a pair of front row seats right by the team’s bench. The kind of seats that put you straight in the action, side by side with your favorite players. A couple from his hometown of Hamilton won that auction in 2023-24, and this year, he’s decided to do another fundraiser for the charity.
This time, he’s auctioning off his own season tickets, aisle seats in section 122, for the last preseason game against the Ottawa Senators. Better yet, the tickets also give access to the Canadiens’ new VIP program: the CIBC La Voute experience. The package includes all-inclusive access to gourmet food stations and unlimited drinks, a VIP separate entrance with doors opening at 5:00 PM. The face value of premium tickets is around $1,400. You can bid on the experience here, and on top of enjoying a great game (since this is the Canadiens’ last preseason game, you can expect a near-complete lineup), you could help make a difference in the lives of people who really need it.
With their signing event, the Xhekaj brothers raised $7,300, and when Arber Xhekaj got a burger named after him for the chain restaurant La Chambre, he asked that a dollar from every sale be split between two charities, The Angel Project and Vision Inter-Culture, who aims to improve the lives of immigrant families.
Say what you will about the Canadiens’ fans, but their heart is in the right place, and every year, numerous initiatives like Antoniadis’ take place and are resounding successes. Putting the fans’ passion for the team and the desire to help is and has always been a winning formula; let’s hope this latest initiative is a homerun as well!
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