The 11 Day Power Play, the wildly successful marathon hockey game founded by Fredonia alumnus Mike Lesakowski and his wife, Amy, that raised over a million dollars for Roswell Park Cancer Institute a year ago, will return to Buffalo’s HarborCenter on July 5 with an expanded format and new name: 11 Day Power Play Community Shift.
Instead of 40 players living, breathing, sleeping and playing in one continuous hockey game spanning 11 consecutive days, this year’s edition will be open to about 120 teams comprised of some 1,700 players who will participate in 60 four-hour shifts of one single game.
“People kept asking us…‘What are you gonna do next?’ ‘What are you gonna do next?’ ‘And if you ever do it again, we want to play,’” Amy Lesakowski explained. “So we just kind of knew that we needed to do this community event. We didn’t want to lose the momentum.”
The 11 Day Power Play Community Shift will be held July 5 to 15 at HarborCenter, home of the Buffalo Sabres hockey team. Teams are to be comprised of 11 to 15 players, ages 11 and up. Each team is asked to raise at least $5,000 per four-hour shift.
The Lasakowskis are hoping to beat last year’s fundraising mark with a marathon game open to all.
Mike Lesakowski was one of a half-dozen former Fredonia hockey players who suited up for last year’s inaugural game which, in addition to raising $1.2 million for Roswell, also broke the Guinness World Record for the longest hockey game ever played.
“For the most part, the group was just a bunch of regular guys,” Mike Lesakowski recalled. “To see people kinda regarding them and putting them on a pedestal, and rightly so for what they were doing, I think the guys really got a charge out of some of that…being treated like celebrities for a few days there. It was kind of a cool thing for some of the guys.”
Proceeds of the 11 Day Power Play Community Shift will benefit Buffalo area families while supporting cancer research and wellness programs at Roswell Park, Make-A-Wish WNY and Camp Good Days. Mike Lesakowski’s mother, Evelyn, died of brain and lung cancer in 2016 and Amy Lesakowski is a survivor of breast cancer.
Donations are graciously accepted either online or by check. Checks can be written to 'The 11 Day Power Play' and send to P.O. Box 4, Buffalo NY 14223. More information about this event or the 2017 World’s Longest Hockey Game is available online.
