ORLANDO – The Orlando sports world continues to rally around those affected – directly and indirectly – by the June 12 massacre at Pulse Orlando that left 49 dead and 53 wounded. Though much of the spotlight has rested upon Orlando City Soccer Club through Orlando’s darkest summer (the soccer league hosted a Pride-themed event on Oct. 2), all of the area’s sports teams have been present in some manner, fundraising and raising awareness for the needs of victims and responders alike. Orlando’s hockey team, the Solar Bears, will lend a hand and some cash when it launches its season on Oct. 22.
“Right away, we jumped on board with Orlando City Soccer, the Orlando Magic and the Orlando Predators to do the T-Shirts as fundraising efforts,” Solar Bears chief financial and legal officer Chris Heller says. “Shortly thereafter, we were trying to figure out how else we could recognize and support with our season being so far away.”
Heller acknowledges, however, that the effect on the community is still too close, to recent for many to bear. As did, it turns out, the Solar Bears’ devoted fan base.
“Our thought was that we could do a special jersey for opening night and use those proceeds for a charity for those affected by this tragedy as well,” Heller says. “We then put something on Facebook later in the summer asking our fans what type of specialty jersey they would like to see this year. In addition to the American Cancer Society, the idea has been thrown out there to do SpongeBob. Unbelievably, the majority of people said a Pulse jersey as well. It matched up with our thought process, so we decided to move forward with that.”
As a result, the team will be wearing black jerseys with rainbows on the sleeves for the season opener, while other rainbow-themed reminders will remain throughout the team’s season. The T-Shirt campaign has raised in excess of $70,000, which will be ceremoniously donated to the Better Together Fund (part of the city’s OneOrlando Fund that has raised nearly $30 million to date for victims and their families). The rest of the program for opening night remained uncertain at press time, but a tribute is expected for the first responders and possibly Orlando’s SWAT team.
“We just want to be inclusionary with everybody who was affected by the incident,” Solar Bears chairman and chief executive officer Joe Haleski says. “That’s our goal here – and to not forget. We do not want people to forget that this is what’s happening in the world today.”
