NYSPEED, I need your help re: Sabres tickets raffle

I have recently acquired 2 Sabres tickets for Dec. 5th against the NY Rangers, Section 104 row 11, right behind the players bench. I won these tickets from a Girl Scouts raffle that I bought tickets from to support a trip to NYC for the girls to see a Matilda play.

What I’m asking for is this: I know this time of year may be especially tough for kids and families who might not be able to provide their kids with a Christmas that some of us are used to having, let alone attend a Sabres game. If you know of someone who I can help out by donating these tickets to, please send me their name and number. I will be choosing a name in a few weeks.

These tickets have a face value of $142 per ticket and I know I could sell them for a profit, but that is not what this is about. I remember growing up, my parents never were able to provide my brother and I a bountiful Christmas. One year I got to go to a Sabres game at the HSBC arena and it was something I will never forget.

Please take a minute to provide me with a name of someone I might be able to help. If they don’t win the Sabres tickets, I have something else planned for them. Thanks for taking a minute to read this.

:tup:

I dont have anyone to recommend, however I’m sure these guys can help.

http://www.cfsbny.org/get-involved/adopt-a-family/

Thanks Jeff! I will see if I can get into contact with someone over there.

Also don’t have someone to recommend but :tup:

I can’t think of anyone off hand but thumbs up for doing this.

:tup:

I would check the local churches. They usually have a tree of needy families that need help. Also, you can look at the refugee programs here in Buffalo that have people who come here and they help place to work. Would be a nice reward for someone who comes here and works to clean bathrooms/dishes for minimum wage to support their family to take a day off and have some fun.

:tup::tup::tup:

Very happy to read this…
My wife works at the Family Help Center very similar to C&FS, CPS, etc. Every year her and I buy gifts for a family in need, her and I have more than we ever need so no need to buy for each other. Last year we bought a family a Wii, bunch of games and tons of other things. They just lost their mother (and of course no father around) and to see their eyes light up in such a horrible time for them is something I will never forget.

I will PM you her number, she can definitely line you up with a family in need.

This.

Props to you for sure!

:tup:
my mom is the manager for volunteers at the city mission, this year in the first 5 hours of it being open they had over 1,000 calls for meals for this year. the families are out there that need help and I’m glad to see you’re doing something about it

Thanks for all the help on this guys! I was able to spend some time a young man who is blind today and had no doubt in my mind he was the one I wanted to give these tickets to. Such an awesome experience to see someone overcome such adversity and still be successful in a career where most people without a disability falter.

being blind probably makes sabres games much more tolerable.

just kidding, good work! :tup:

Not a surprise seeing a good dude want to do a good thing. :tup: Rob this kind of stuff gives me some hope for this sick world. If I think of anyone to help ill def pass it along!

All of us season ticket holders that can’t sell our tickets for crap should do this. NYSpeed v. Charity. Did you meet this guy through a service or just randomly?

I attend a Networking group once a month and this past time I met the VP of the Statler Center down in Buffalo. He invited all of us to the graduation they were having yesterday for their program and I was one of 2 that attended out of 25 or so that he invited. We started talking and I mentioned what I was looking to do and he introduced me to this young man. The timing just couldn’t be more perfect the way we came about to meet each other. I have other kids who I was sent their names that I really would like to do something for.

There is a 9 year old boy who’s a huge Sabres fan and his younger sister was just diagnosed with a terminal cancer and I felt really bad that I couldn’t give him the tickets once I had already decided to give them to Ray.

If anyone wants to help out, I will pass along the name and number for girl representing him and I may even be doing something myself to help him out. I also spoke to TBirdsc1’s wife about some people she had in mind. If anyone wants to get in contact with anyone I spoke to, feel free to pm me, call or txt. 716-604-5862 -Rob

^Hopefully they can get to a game. Kids that age really don’t care if the team wins or loses, they want to go…have a popcorn and pop, cheer loudly and enjoy the atmosphere. If I come across more tickets I will probably give you a shout Rob.

Glad you found someone and it all worked out.
Yes if anyone is looking to donate anything this holiday season, whether it be toys, food or even more Sabres tickets…lol…my wife has a list of well deserving families from her work. Either contact Rob or even PM me and I can get you in contact with her.
Thanks!

I wanted to share this story with everyone a little bit more…I just received a letter from Ray, the young man I gave these tickets to. One of his lines in there was this:

“I sincerely would like to thank you for those Sabres tickets, those seats were simply amazing! The players could clearly hear the combined heckling from my father and me, something I’m sure they won’t soon forget.”

Just so happens, he made the newspaper 2 days ago too, I put the section about him in Bold:

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/olmsted-call-center-opens-the-door-to-annual-campaign-20131221

All year long, the calls to Western New York 2-1-1 involve pretty serious business.

Mental health. Domestic violence. Substance abuse. Crisis intervention. Financial or legal issues.

At Olmsted Center for Sight in Buffalo, a handful of blind and visually impaired information and referral specialists man the phones 24-7, offering referrals to the many health and human service agencies that provide programs throughout the region’s eight counties. There’s a second call center in Batavia.

A lot of callers are “people in kind of desperate situations,” noted Sterling Smalley of Buffalo, who works as a specialist at the Buffalo site. “The point of 2-1-1 is basically to not have to call 50 numbers to get the … service you’re looking for.”

But for a couple of months each year, Smalley and his co-workers also have a more upbeat mission. They direct people to where they can obtain toys to place beneath the Christmas tree or a holiday meal.

Olmsted Center for Sight administers the Western New York Holiday Partnership, whose partners include The News Neediest Fund. Now in its 32nd year, The News Neediest Fund last year raised $195,580, which provided holiday meals for 12,000 families and holiday gifts for about 11,000 children.

Those calls for holiday help are accepted between October and early December, when the registration period ends.

Specialists ask for a caller’s ZIP code, then direct them to the appropriate agency in their area. Callers also are told about requirements for the programs and what kind of documentation to bring.

“The families can only go to one center,” said Jeffrey Hirschfelt, vice president of academic services and business development at Olmsted.

Olmsted Center for Sight has been handling those holiday partnership calls for more than 20 years; there are between 8,000 and 10,000 annually.

The staff has access to an extensive, continuously updated database to relay helpful information to callers.

“They will do a mini assessment and determine what the needs are,” explained Hope Santonocito, director of contact center services. Many callers start out with one issue, but their conversations with the specialists lead to others, she added.

Another specialist, Ray Zylinski of Hamburg, is a newcomer to the call center. During his brief tenure, he’s already noticed the increased volume of calls before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Zylinski and Smalley use Job Access With Speech [JAWS], a software program that converts what’s on the computer screen to speech. Once they type in a ZIP code, the computers will “tell” them what’s on the screen.

“As I’m hearing the information in my left ear, I’m relaying it to the caller,” Zylinski said.

Zylinski prides himself on being a good listener. He pays attention to inflections in callers’ voices – using that as a clue to determine their moods – and said he adjusts his tone accordingly.

“I have been blind pretty much since I was six years old. I’ve gone through life listening to things,” Zylinski said. “That’s all this job is … you’re listening to people.