Ingram Micro’s finest skaters from its Canadian headquarters and its operations in Buffalo recently took to the ice in Mississauga for a charity hockey game that raised $15,000 for sled hockey organizations in Canada and the United States.
Originally billed as a Canada vs. U.S. game in the spirit of last year’s Ingram-vs-Ingram hockey game in Buffalo, organizers flipped the script at the last minute – instead holding a cross-border draft into teams representing the event’s two biggest sponsors, Cisco and HP.
The afternoon’s event started out with a thrilling demonstration of sled hockey, with a local Mississauga team taking on a squad from Buffalo. The home team took the win 5-3 after two big shootout goals.
After that, it was time to for the cross-border Ingram associates to take to the cie, with Team Cisco taking on Team HP. Team HP dominated early, but Team Cisco stormed back as the clock ran down to eventually win 8-7.
“This was an evenly matched game with combined skill from associates on both sides of the border,” said John Fago, senior director of channel marketing for North America at Ingram Micro.
Fago said the $15,000 was split between sled hockey organizations in the United States and Canada. Along with support from team sponsors HP and Cisco, the event was also sponsored by Lenovo and Wells Fargo.
ChannelBuzz.ca readers may recall, of course, that fellow distributors Tech Data Canada and Synnex Canada held a similar charity hockey game earlier this year. That game was not lost on Fago, who seems to have grandiose plans for the next steps in the distributor’s charity hockey plans.
Tech Data and Synnex played to benefit United Way, and Fago noted that Ingram is also a big supporter of the United Way. So where do we go from here? Three-way round robin tournament? A broader extravaganza with vendors and partners also taking to the ice? I’m not quite sure right now, but it seems like a number of options were on Fago’s mind that day in Mississauga, and phone calls are likely being made as we speak. Ingram Micro is clearly interested, and judging by my conversations with Synnex Canada and Tech Data Canada leadership at their game earlier this year, they’re absolutely interested.
Whatever happens, whenever it happens, ChannelBuzz.ca will let you know all about. Because it’s an important event in our community. And because, selfishly speaking, behind every IT blogger is at least a hint of a would-be sports reporter.
