As an NHLer, Brad Marsh was kind of a stay-at-home guy.
Patrolling bluelines in Atlanta, Calgary, Philadelphia, Toronto and Ottawa over a 15-year big-league career, Marsh gained a reputation as a slow-but-steady skater who protected his goaltender while scoring just 23 goals in more than 1,000 games.
But Marsh, now 54, always scored big off the ice and is leading the pack again this spring, biking across the country with his wife and four children in an effort to raise awareness for Canada’s Boys and Girls Clubs.
Marsh lives in Ottawa these days, his final hockey destination, and said he got the idea for the 90-day challenge when he and his fellow NHL alumni were working with Boys and Girls clubs in the nation’s capital.
“Just in a conversation one day the executive director of that club indicated that the support for the Boys and Girls Club from coast to coast is just not what it should be,” said Marsh, who was the original captain of the Flames in Calgary before being dealt on Remembrance Day 2011 to Philadelphia in exchange for Mel Bridgman.
“It’s not a top 10, top 15 or top 20 charity. For whatever reason, it flies under the radar. One thing led to another and I thought why not do something that’s going to raise awareness from coast to coast.”
Joined by son Eric in Thunder Bay – his wife had to return home to help the couple’s daughters move out of their college dorms – Marsh said the Boys and Girls Club has so much to offer youngsters that it’s
a shame it doesn’t get more attention.
“Basically, in a nutshell, it provides the kids with a safe environment that they can come to after school, at nighttime after dinner or on the weekends in the summertime. There’s so much crap going on in the world out there that the Boys and Girls Club just offer a safe environment for the kids to come play and be kids and learn.
“The homework club is a fabulous thing that most clubs have going after school. The kids come and do their homework and there are so many good things.”
A longtime supporter of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and a community volunteer in every town he played, Marsh and his entourage left the West Coast on April 23 and hope to finish their journey in St. John’s, N.L. toward the end of July.
So far, so good, he said.
“It has been very rewarding. The mountains are hard, but you knew that going into it and you just put your mindset in the appropriate gear, if you will, and you just make your way up the hill. The reward is you get to come down on the other end,” said Marsh, a first-time visitor to Thunder Bay who was greeted by an enthusiastic group of kids at the Junot Street Boys and Girls Club Friday afternoon.
“It’s been fun. Each area has been unique.”
Boys and Girls Club of Thunder Bay president Pat Suddaby said anytime awareness can be raised to help the organization, it’s a good thing.
“The biggest thing for us is creating awareness about the Boys and Girls Club and letting people know what we have to offer here in Thunder Bay. We service a lot of kids and there’s no distinction between whether you’re rich or poor. We like to have every kid here that would like to come and attend and until people are aware of what we have, it will always be a question of getting the numbers here until we fill the place.
“And we would love to see that happen,” Suddaby said.
