A Game Changing Experience

Sorry Steve, I had to post this one

This was written and was set to be posted just days after Steve was named the Scotiabank Game Changer, but the official pictures that were taken during the evening that I hoped to attach to this post never materialized. I was lucky enough to have some friends take pictures from the stands, so I am using one of those instead.

And despite this happening over a month ago, and therefore being old news, I still wanted to post it. I have gone through and made some changes to dates and the like, but the majority of this post is the same as it was back when it was originally written in late July.

It was a whirlwind couple of days for my buddy Steve after he found out he was named the Scotiabank Game Changer back in July. I was lucky enough to accompany him on gameday, but things got started even before that.

The Friday before the game, Steve was interviewed by Hilary Caton of the Hamilton Spectator about being named a Scotiabank Game Changer. My reasoning for nominating Steve was that I wanted his brand to get more recognition and he had already achieved that before we even went to the game.

Then of course came the main event, which was the game itself. I cannot put into words how cool the whole experience was, and I'm just speaking for myself. We arrived at the stadium at 5:30 and were immediately whisked onto the field to watch the two teams warm up. I get to games pretty early and stand in the west end zone to watch the warmups, but this was something different.

After standing on the sideline for about 20 minutes, we were taken up to the booth and got a chance to talk with TSN's own Duane Forde. It was such a cool experience to talk football with him. He seemed genuinely interested and engaged when we discussed various things about the Ti-Cats and the CFL in general. I spent the most time talking to him because I have always been a fan of his (yes, even dating back to when he played) and it was great to get a couple minutes with him to talk football.

After that, we went back down onto the field to mill around before Steve was sent out to midfield for the coin toss. Again, if you were at the game, you heard his name said and saw him on the field. Steve is not the world's biggest football fan, but he knew how cool it was to be out there for that moment.

As a Game Changer, Steve was given four tickets to the game in the "In the Trenches" seats. While they aren't the best seats for watching a game – I spent most of the time watching the screen because it is hard to see what is going on – it was still a pretty cool experience. We were located right next the Alouettes' bench and it gave me a new perspective on just what the opposing players face when they play at Ivor Wynne Stadium. The fans that sit near the opponents' bench are ruthless. Some of the insults cross the line, but most of them we funny. The target of fan scorn for most of that game was Alouette receiver Brandon London. The fans got on him and they got on him hard. Every time he came off the field, he was taunted mercilessly. Sitting as close as we were, I can tell you that some of what was said got to him.

As much as I am making this about myself, that night was all about Steve. If you were at the game or watched on TSN, you saw Steve receive his cheque and also saw him (and me and his girlfriend Katie) mug for the camera. If you missed it, you can catch said mugging by fast forwarding this video to about the 12:50 mark.

The whole evening was super fun and it was all thanks to Steve (of course, he has been thanking me endlessly because I nominated him, but I refuse to take any credit for the great stuff he has done). Now that he has won the $1,000 prize, he is eligible to become the Game Changer representative for the Tiger-Cats at the Grey Cup in Toronto. If he is chosen, he will have a chance to win $100,000 for Hamilton Health Sciences. So I implore everyone to keep voting for Steve and hopefully I will have some good news later this year.

My Friend Steve is a Game Changer

A little over a week ago, I wrote a post about my friend Steve and why I nominated him to be a Scotiabank Game Changer.

I am proud to announce that Steve has been selected as the Scotiabank Game Changer for this week's Tiger-Cat game against the Montreal Alouettes. He will receive a cheque for $1,000 that will go to Hamilton Health Sciences.

If you read my initial post on this, you know how I feel about Steve and his charity efforts. He is the most selfless person I know and I was proud to nominate him. I am so happy that he was selected and that his name and brand (High Fives 2 Help Lives) will get more publicity and get scene around the country. More people need to know what great work he does and that is one of the reasons why I nominated him as a Game Changer.

As great as it is that Steve has won the $1,000 for Hamilton Health Sciences, the work is not done yet. There is still a chance for Steve to go to the Grey Cup, represent Hamilton and come home with $100,000 for Hamilton Health Sciences.

To everyone who has voted, I give you my sincere thanks. I may have nominated him, but his hard work and your votes are what helped make this happen. I was but a cog, and a small one at that, in a much larger machine. You, the voters, and Steve, the great man that he is, are the main reasons why I can now call my friend a Scotiabank Game Changer.

Scotiabank Game Changer

Normally when there are two or three things going on in Tigertown, I like to combine them. I will post something on the all-time running back nominees and the possibility of closing Cannon Street in front of the new stadium later, but this post is about something a lot more important than football, so I felt it deserved its own post.

Those who attend games or watch on TSN have probably noticed that Scotiabank has a Game Changer program where they will give money to people who have or are making an impact in their communities. It just so happens that I know one of these people and when I first heard of the program, his name was the first one that popped to mind. So after getting all the needed information, I decided to nominate my good friend Steve Gillon as a Scotiabank Game Changer.

You can read Steve's profile by clicking the link, and I think it does a good job of encapsulating all the great work he does, but there was a word limit, so I would like to go into a little more detail (and get a little more personal) about why I nominated Steve.

Steve decided when his grandparents and uncle passed away that he wouldn't just sit around and do nothing about the diseases that took those he loved away from him. I remember attending what I believe was his first fundraiser at the London Tap House in downtown Hamilton in July of 2009. I'm not the most social guy in the world, but I figured it was worth it to support my friend. Since then, Steve has held numerous fundraisers, and even a toy drive, in an effort to give back. All this fundraising led him to establish his own non-profit organization, High Fives 2 Help Lives, in 2011.

Since establishing High Fives, Steve has helped raise almost $5,400 for various charities, with his Movember campaign being his most successful so far. You may recall that last NMovember I posted a piece lamenting the fact that the CFL was not doing something to promote Movember like they had with their breast cancer awareness program in October. You may also remember who happy I was to find out that memebers of the Tiger-Cats office staff were getting in on the Movember fun.

My support for Movember came because of one man: Steve. If you look at the first link in the above paragraph you will notice his name is featured prominently. There is a reason for that, and it goes beyond us being friends for over 20 years. I am, to put it bluntly, damn proud of him. He took what is one of the worst things in the world, losing the people you love, and turned it into something positive. He found a way to give back and has done some amazing work over the last three years. So when the chance came to help him out, I jumped at it. He has worked so hard to give back to others, that is was time for me to finally give back by helping him.

When I heard about the Scotiabank Game Changer program, I thought of no one else but Steve. So in addition to this post, I will also be adding a link to Steve's Game Changer profile on the sidebar. Please, just take a minute or two to read his profile and vote for him. I know he would appreciate it and so would I.