By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Christmas season might just be warming up in Caledon, but the U16BB Hawks jumped into giving mode months ago.

When this year's U16BB Caledon Hawks Hockey first joined together in April, they immediately began collecting food for their yearly donation to Caledon Community Service's food bank, The Exchange.

Every year for the past three years, they've been raising their goal, and this year was no different – with their sights set on collecting 1,500 lbs of non-perishable food donations.

During their final weigh-in at The Exchange just last week, the team raised a total of 1,645 lbs.

Hawks player Luca Barbuzzi explained they went around Caledon neighborhoods as a team, going door to door asking for donations.

He shared that it's not only fun working together as a team, but also helping the community.

Sponsor Coordinator for the U16BB Hawks Silvana Robinson, said this has been months of legwork and effort from the team.

Whether it was handing out donation bags in the community ahead of time or sorting them at the final weigh-in, the team truly gave it their all this year.

Players Nathan Svirga and Jordan Hurst said it felt good to help others in the community and be able to give back.

Robinson shared that a large part of this fundraiser is to raise awareness not only within the team but also in the community about food insecurity.

“Instilling life-long awareness of food insecurities, and a good feeling of giving back is something I hope these aspiring young adults will always remember,” says Robinson.

She said she hopes the team takes moments like these with them throughout the rest of their lives.

This wasn't the only fundraising effort from the U16BB Caledon Hawks this year; just a few short months ago, they raised over $1,000 for this year's Bolton Kin Terry Fox run, more than double their target.

As this team consistently goes above and beyond their goals, they're sure to achieve even more in next year's fundraisers.