Each season, the King Clancy Memorial Trophy is given to an NHL player who “best exemplifies leadership qualities both on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.”
The nominees from each team are selected by their teammates and, for the third straight year, Cory Schneider has been named the nominee from the New Jersey Devils.
An article on the Devils’ official website outlines why the team nominated the third year-Devil and six year-NHL veteran.
To begin with, this December, Cory and his wife, Jill, started a “brand new charitable initiative with the team and Atlantic Health” called Cory’s Keepers. This program strives to bring New Jersey youth groups as well as veterans “to over 20 Devils home games.”
The article mentioned that the program’s first game was on December 6 against the Panthers and featured “20 students from Hockey in Newark and the city’s East Side High School Hockey Team.” Kids and groups attending receive “premium tickets to each game, courtesy of the Schneiders, plus Cory’s Keepers t-shirts, a food-and-beverage card and an exclusive meet-and-greet with Schneider after the game.”
Students who attend must “meet certain performance levels both in school and in the community.”
In addition to Cory’s Keepers, Schneider and his wife also donate time to Liberty Humane Society Shelter in Jersey City. Here, “serve as pet shelter volunteers to raise money and awareness for the program.” They also foster animals in their own home before permanent homes are found for them. Schneider and Adam Henrique both participated in a charity autograph and interview session for the shelter last year.
LHS also participated in an awareness night with the Devils where “the proceeds from that game’s 50-50 raffle” was donated to the organization, which serves Jersey City, Bayonne and Hoboken.
Back at the All-Star Game, to which Cory was the Devils’ representative, he wore special crossed-guitar design goalie pads. He later auctioned them off “at the Boston Winter Ball to benefit the Corey C. Griffin Charitable Foundation.” According to the press release, “the Foundation honors the passing of Boston-native Corey Griffin and fulfills his passion of supporting children, families and faith in partnership with leading institutions and social entrepreneurs.”
Back on December 31, the Boston Pride of the National Women’s Hockey League played in the Women’s Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. In that game, Denna Laing, a member of the Pride, suffered a serious spinal cord injury. Cory, who is from Marblehead, Massachusetts (also Laing’s hometown) “joined a group of NHL players who each pledged to donate $1,000 for every $10,000 Boston-based website Barstool Sports raised through its sales of Laing t-shirts.”
To further help benefit Laing’s recovery, Cory “had one of his All-Star jerseys signed by all the players in Nashville” (where the All-Star Game was held) “and one signed by his teammates in New Jersey.” Both jerseys were auctioned off to benefit Laing’s recovery fund.
Cory participates in all of the Devils’ initiatives as well. From annual hospital visits to honoring the New Jersey High School Players of the Month and Year, to the NHL’s Hockey Fights Cancer program (for which Jill Schneider also helped by selling t-shirts with the other player’s wives and girlfriends during the Hockey Fights Cancer awareness game back in November), to the Devils’ Military Appreciation Night.
The article also mentions that last summer, Cory and other Boston College alumni teamed with alumni from Boston University “to raise money for Compassionate Care ALS in the first annual Comm Ave Charity Classic.” Both Cory and fellow BC alum Stephen Gionta participated and the event drew over 3,000 people to the BU Terriers’ rink. It “raised over $55,000 for ALS research.”
Other charities in Boston that Schneider participates in include the Krystle Campbell Memorial Fund (part of One Fund Boston) which is “in honor of their friend and those affected by the tragic events at the Boston Marathon in 2013.”
Schneider is also active with the Hope Rises Relief Fund, which pays for victims medical costs and helps support the families of victims of the Aurora, Colorado shootings as well as Hockey in Newark, Heroes Among Us (a Devils’ program that honors the military), Make-A-Wish New Jersey and a similar charity, the Sunshine Foundation of Canada.
Congratulations to Cory Schneider on this well deserved recognition.