Street Hockey on Granville for the Olympic Anniversary

There will be street hockey on Granville this month as the road is closed to traffic and thousands celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. Street hockey games popped up on Smithe, Howe, Granville, in Yaletown and across the region as so many participated in cheering on our Canadian athletes by playing our nation’s celebrated game.

Photo credit: PiscesDreamer on Flickr

Five Hole for Food, a charity street hockey event that crosses the country to fundraise for local foodbanks, is behind this initiative. “Being a proud Canadian, it occurred to me that in the name of community and charity we could play hockey for a good cause and thus Five Hole for Food was born,” founder Richard Loat told me last summer. “When we heard that they were shutting down Granville to try and recreate some of those Olympic memories we were first to ask about the road hockey. Lets be honest, it wouldn’t really be a commemorative street party if there wasn’t any road hockey now would it?”

Photo credit: PiscesDreamer on Flickr

Street hockey will take place February 12, 2011 during the Olympic Commemoration Street Party downtown and the rink will be setup at the 700 block of Granville. There will be integration with Lunar Fest, the Canadian Mint will be open, and a handful of other activities across the city will also be taking place. The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association is behind most of the anniversary event planning and they have a few ‘big names’ who will be making an appearance during the street hockey event (to be announced at a later date).

The Greater Vancouver Foodbank Society will be at the hockey game to collect donations and you can RSVP for the event on Facebook.

February 12th is also Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada up in Whitehorse.