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March 27, 2005 - Randy Youngman / Orange County Register
Columnist
It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows him that the NHL
lockout has failed to slow down Mighty Ducks coach Mike Babcock, a man
in perpetual motion who has a passion for everything he does on and off
the ice.
Babcock naturally is disappointed the ongoing labor dispute has wiped
out what was supposed to be his third season behind the Mighty Ducks
bench, but he is not one to sit around and complain about being denied
an opportunity to do what he loves most or to agonize about the
uncertainty of his future.
As he sees it, when one door closes, two doors open.
“It’s terrible that we’re not playing hockey,” Babcock said last week
by cell phone as he headed to the airport, “but it has been positive for
me personally on two fronts – spending more time with my family and
working on fund-raising for pediatric cancer research.”
During the work stoppage, Babcock has enjoyed the extra time with
wife Maureen and their three elementary school-age children: Alexandra,
Michael and Taylor. This weekend, he accompanied Michael, 10, to a youth
hockey tournament in Calgary. And he proudly talks about serving as “an
assistant softball coach” for Alexandra’s team.
There also has been more time for visiting schools and hospitals, for
charity speaking engagements and for focusing on his fund-raising role
as spokesman for the Jeffrey Thomas Hayden Foundation, - www.jthf.org –
an interactive website dedicated to providing factual information to
parents of children stricken with cancerous brain tumors.
Toward that end, Babcock will conduct a three-night charity hockey
camp next month at Disney Ice for youngsters making the transition from
“squirt” (no-contact) hockey for 9- to 10-year olds to “peewee”
(full-contact) hockey.
The “Contact Confidence” camp, sponsored by the Mighty Ducks, will be
held on three consecutive Thursdays (April 7, 14, 21) from 7:10-8:10
p.m. in Disney Ice’s NHL Arena, with the entire, tax-deductible $125
entry fee going to the JTH Foundation. For more information, contact the
Ducks community relations department at (714) 940-2962.
“Kids and parents are worried about contact in youth hockey, so the
focus of the camp is to make this transition to full contact as smooth
as possible and make sure the youngsters are confident physically and
mentally and ready for the next level,” Babcock said.
When Babcock was coaching the mighty Ducks’ top minor-league
affiliate in Cincinnati from 2000-02, his family became friends with the
neighboring Hayden family. And when Jeffrey Hayden, Michael Babcock’s
close friend, died last year of brain cancer, the Babcock’s and Hayden’s
were inspired to take action.
Through the continued diligence of its founders, the JTH Foundation
website now includes the Pediatric Brain Tumor Resource Center, which
provides a central online data base in which parents facing difficult
decisions for their stricken children can share the latest information
about treatments and options.
Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) has joined the battle
with a pilot program, featuring the “TumorTracker” database (for parents
to collect information on the efficacy of treatments and alternative
therapies over a prolonged time period) and the “Interactive Virtual
Hub” (where a panel of specialists can interact with parents online).
“If your son or daughter is diagnosed with a brain tumor, as a parent
you’re overwhelmed and don’t know where to go for information,” Babcock
said. “Now they’ll be able to access our website, where they can post
MRI’s that the experts can look over, saving them the expense of flying
all over the country to get second and third opinions.
Dr. Leonard Sender, medical director of the CHOC Cancer Institute, is
organizing the CHOC Cancer Advisory Board, to be comprised of
specialists from around the country, for the pilot program.
“The interactive Web site will allow, for the first time, the medical
community to receive definitive information on all of the treatments
patients receive through the progression of the disease,” Sender said.
“This information is key to gaining a better understanding of treatment
results, including side effects and patients’ quality-of-life data.”
Babcock is proud of the collaborative efforts of the Mighty Ducks,
CHOC and the JTH Foundation.
“The Mighty Ducks gave me the platform to get the media attention,
and media attention hopefully leads to funding,” Babcock said.
And, it is hoped, funding someday leads to a cure for brain cancer,
the No. 1 killer of cancer-stricken children under 18.
Tax-deductible contributions, Babcock said, also are being
accepted through the JTH Foundation, to help fund this project.
This article appeared in the Orange County Register
on Easter Sunday
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