SEWELL, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — The family of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau expressed their thanks to thousands of supporters in person and online after hosting a sold out 5K run on Saturday. The event honored the hockey players’ lives after they were killed by a suspected drunk driver last year.
Thousands attended the Gaudreau Family 5K and Family Fun Day at Washington Lake Park in Washington Township, a place John and Matthew went hundreds of times as kids and around the corner from Hollydell Ice Arena, where they started playing hockey. Roughly 1,100 people took part in person, along with more than 1,300 virtually in the U.S., Canada and around the world.
Johnny, an NHL star with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and his brother Matthew were killed on Aug. 29, 2024 when they were hit by a car as they were bicycling through Salem County the night before their sister’s wedding. The driver, 44-year-old Sean M. Higgins, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of death by auto.
An emotional Guy Gaudreau, father of Johnny and Matthew, hugged his wife and daughter after finishing the race. All three shared a cry at the finish line.
“We cry a lot, and so we have a very close family and we lost two big parts of our family,” he said. “We have to figure out how to move on from here. It’s hard.”
Along with honoring the NHL star known as “Johnny Hockey” and his younger brother that family and friends called Matty, the goal of the event was to raise money for an accessible playground at Archbishop Damiano School where their mother Jane Gaudreau and sister Kristen work. It was a cause John and Matthew had begun to champion in honor of their grandmother Marie, who spent 44 years at the school and died in 2023.
Gaudreau said nothing could bring his boys back or take away the pain the family has felt, but all the love and support at the event was comforting.
“You know, it does make us realize how many lives that John and Matt touched throughout the world. We get letters and people texting us just neat stories about the boys that we didn’t know,” he said.
The family has already begun to think about doing it again next year, according to Gaudreau, and perhaps scaling it up, given how many people wanted to participate.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.