EDMONTON -- Ben Stelter was an inspiration to an entire community in his battle against cancer, and his legacy lives on in a holiday season minor hockey tournament.
The puck drops on the inaugural Ben’s Cup on Friday with 32 teams, mainly from the Edmonton area, taking part in the tournament in support of the Ben Stelter Foundation. The Edmonton Oilers superfan died Aug. 9, 2022 at the age of 6, of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer.
“We had a group of friends that sort of pitched the idea to us that they wanted to set up a youth hockey tournament,” Mike Stelter, Ben’s father said. “They became the committee for Ben’s Cup and then we started putting it together to try to make it our big fundraiser of the year.”
The tournament features 16 Under-11 and 16 Under-13 teams competing in six different divisions. The event will also have an All-Star game comprised of the 40 top fundraisers participating in the tournament.
“It’s the first one, so we’re pretty excited,” Mike Stelter said. “We want to go get something fun going for some of the younger players out there. There are some big tournaments for some of the older kids and we wanted to get some of the younger kids involved.”
Ben Stelter was introduced to Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid in September 2021. Stelter met the rest of the team on March 24, 2022, when he was chosen to act as the Scotiabank Skater and lined up alongside McDavid and the rest of the Oilers starters for the national anthems in a game against the San Jose Sharks.
Following the 5-2 win, Oilers forward Zach Hyman took Ben into the postgame media conference, where he endeared himself to the entire city.
“For anybody that met Ben, he had such a personality,” McDavid said. “He was a 5, 6-year-old-kid and had so much life and so much personality, he was just destined to do big things. Even though he’s no longer with us today, you can tell that his legacy lives on and will live on for an extremely long time.
“That’s a credit to the family and the work they do with the Ben Stelter Foundation and to Ben himself, with the life he lived and the energy that he brought, and the personality that he had, he was a special little guy and we miss him.”
Ben’s Cup is expected to be an annual event, which Mike Stelter hopes will grow every season.
“Absolutely, we expect it to grow pretty big,” Mike Stelter said. “The first one started out strong, we got it filled up pretty quick and we got some pretty great support behind us as well.”
The NHL is one of a number of tournament sponsors. The four-day event is projected to raise upwards of $400,000 for the Ben Stelter Foundation.
Set up in Ben’s name, the Foundation helps children fighting cancer by funding research, providing medical equipment, offering magical experiences for kids and their families, and investing in venture philanthropy.
The Foundation is currently working on bringing proton therapy to Canada. Mike Stelter is undergoing his own battle with cancer, diagnosed with sarcoma, when a tumor was discovered forming on his spine. He traveled to the Roberts Proton Therapy Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia to receive treatment.
Organizers of Ben’s Cup wanted the tournament to take place over the holiday season, bringing extra energy and excitement to the event.
“We had a lot of teams reaching out and had a lot of interest, especially for a tournament that hasn’t happened before,” Mike Stelter said. “We think it’s going to be really cool. The teams bought in and the kids have a fundraising aspect that goes along with it as well.
“Each player has a fundraising requirement to enter the tournament. We’ve been giving them a lot of tools with flyers for bottle drives or door-to-door donations and things like that. The top 40 fundraisers get to take part in the All-Star game that we’re putting on.”
Heading into the tournament, Kaleb Williams was the top fundraiser ($16,867), followed by Emmett Madigin ($15,370), Jake Sarvas ($11,365), Niall O’Brien Buckley ($8,735) and Levi Beneke ($7,852).
“We’re going to have a mix of U-11 and U-13 and a mix of different skill level participating as well,” Stelter said. “These are the kids that really bought in and are going really hard with the fundraising, which is pretty cool. Just with that group of 40 kids, they were about $140,000 that they had raise on their own.”
