Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's game on at Riverworks for the 'Frozen 40' hockey players who will be playing one continuous hockey game at Riverworks for the next 11 days to help fight cancer.
The 11 Day Power Play is on.
For most of the past year, the 40 players have been training as a team together to be ready for both the physical and mental challenges the endurance game represents.
"This is a very challenging physical event," says event organizer Amy Lesakowski. But that's just the half of it.
"We did require each player to raise more than $15,000 to participate," says Lesakowski. And even with that lofty requirement, there were more than 200 applications for positions on the Frozen 40 team.
By the time the game wraps up the night before Thanksgiving, the game will break the Guiness Book of World Records for the longest continuous game and those requirements are stringent. Only the 40 players can compete, and if any players were to leave the game for any reason, they are not replaced and the remaining players need to pick up any slack in the shifts.
Simultaneously, separate teams will complete on the other sheet of ice at Riverworks from 8am to 11pm in the Community Shift that allows for a completely separate fundraising arm to the event and also provides a naturally evolving cheering section for the Frozen 40 throughout the event.
The iconic event will mainly raise money for Roswell Park, as well as Camp Good Days, Make a Wish and the blood and cancers disorders program initiative between Roswell Park and Oishei Children's Hospital.
Before the puck dropped, $1.6 million had been raised and they were closing in on an impressive benchmark since the events inception. "We are $200,000 away from $7 million," Lesakowski told WBEN last week.
Donations to the event can be made here.
