The Blackburn News’s Mark Brown reports that the community of Tecumseh, Ontario was the indirect beneficiary of this year’s Bob Probert Ride:
A popular motorcycle benefit was the springboard for an announcement concerning a local sports facility.
A new satellite cardiac centre will be included in the town of Tecumseh’s soon-to-be-built Sportsplex, thanks to proceeds from the eighth annual Bob Probert Ride, held Sunday.
The announcement was made before the ride by Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara.
Over 1,500 riders from all over North America participated in the fundraising event, raising money for cardiac services provided by Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH).
The Tecumseh facility will be the third satellite heart centre set up by HDGH.
“To extend the current services offered into the east-end community has been one of our ambitious fundraising goals for a few years now,” said Dani Probert, Bob’s widow, in a statement.
Continued, and I know this isn’t Red Wings-related, but it’s pretty cool that the Bob Probert Ride’s community clout helped spurn the growth of Windsor’s Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital’s services.
Update: Here’s more from the Windsor Star’s Taylor Campbell:
The $24-million sportsplex expansion to Tecumseh Arena will include a cardiac wellness and rehabilitation centre named after the late NHL legend Bob Probert, Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara announced to a cheering crowd of over 1,500 motorcyclists Sunday.
To date, the annual Bob Probert Ride has raised almost $1 million to support cardiac care in Windsor and Essex County through programs and services offered at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare. The east-end facility will be the third satellite cardiac centre the event has financially supported. The existing two centres are housed at HDGH’s home base on Prince Road and within Windsor Regional Hospital’s Ouellette campus.
The memorial ride, which began eight years ago after the former Detroit Red Wing died of a heart attack at age 45, raised over $100,000 this year alone.
Janice Kaffer, president and CEO of HDGH, said the hospital organization has been planning the east-end centre for about three years.
“We’ve been trying to figure out how to take services out of the hospital into the community, and this partnership and the fundraising that the Probert family have been doing has allowed us to do our first major expansion since we took on Prince Road,” said Kaffer, referring to the hospital’s move to the Prince Road site from Ouellette five years ago.
