{"id":356449,"date":"2025-12-19T23:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T23:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/356449\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T23:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T23:08:10","slug":"kadri-makes-pair-of-50k-donations-to-food-banks-in-london-calgary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/356449\/","title":{"rendered":"Kadri makes pair of $50K donations to food banks in London, Calgary"},"content":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2013 Calgary Flames forward Nazem Kadri<\/a> has seen the dream of becoming an NHL player and winning a Stanley Cup realized and now, as always, he\u2019s giving back.<\/p>\n

Kadri celebrated playing his 1,000th NHL game in November and, as part of the pregame festivities, the Flames Foundation made a $50,000 donation to the Nazem Kadri Foundation, which subsequently donated $50,000 to the London (Ont.) Food Bank on Dec. 10 to help families in need during the holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Flames, they\u2019ve been very generous over the years I\u2019ve been here in helping support my foundation and collaborating on a few occasions,\u201d Kadri, a native of London, Ontario, told NHL.com. \u201cIt\u2019s always nice to have people that really care and take pride in this sort of thing and we couldn\u2019t be happier. It feels incredible. With the foundation, we\u2019re just doing our part. Obviously, it\u2019s where I\u2019m from and the community I was raised around, so it\u2019s always nice to give back to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nazem Kadri Foundation also teamed up with the Flames Foundation to make a $50,000 donation to the Calgary Food Bank on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a part of the community here as well, so I just felt like it was as important to do that,\u201d Kadri said. \u201cThe Flames were able to match what I gave, so we were able to double up the money and collaborate again. I think around this time of year, especially for the holidays, is the most important time to give back and that\u2019s a thrilling feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flames general manager Craig Conroy wasn\u2019t surprised to hear that Kadri wanted to make an impact both in the community where he grew up and in the city where he now plies his trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been unbelievable,\u201d Conroy said. \u201cHe\u2019s just a good person \u2013 a competitive, great player \u2013 but off the ice just as good. I think people say, \u2018I want to help,\u2019 but he does. Whether it\u2019s his time or financially, he always wants to do the right thing and help people and that\u2019s pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his book Dreamer: My Life On The Edge, Kadri wrote that while he was playing for the London Junior Knights in the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario, that \u201cthe NHL was a distant mirage.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he worked hard to make that mirage a reality, Kadri said he never thought that he\u2019d be able to give back the way that he\u2019s been able to with his Foundation.<\/p>\n

And Conroy has been impressed by Kadri\u2019s giving spirit as well as by charitable endeavors spearheaded by other players on the Flames like MacKenzie Weegar<\/a> and captain Mikael Backlund<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many of our guys give back,\u201d Conroy said. \u201cThey come to us. It\u2019s pretty special to watch these players come here and give back to the community and the way the community supports us, too. It\u2019s a give and take, both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another community initiative, Jonathan Huberdeau<\/a> and Justin Kirkland<\/a> teamed up to launch their J & J Powerplay program, which will support efforts to address food insecurity among Calgary\u2019s youth through focused initiatives at The Youth Centres of Calgary locations in Forest Lawn and Ogden.<\/p>\n

Kirkland, who was recalled by the Flames from the Calgary Wranglers of the American Hockey League on Thursday, explained that he and Huberdeau wanted to figure out a way to make even more of a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s weird how it all works out, but Justin is here all the time, too,\u201d Conroy said. \u201cHe knows the city and wants to be a part of it. And for \u2018Huby\u2019 to do it and for them to do it together, it\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kadri, the ability to give back is just another life goal reached.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always something I wanted to do,\u201d said Kadri, who has racked up 741 points (315 goals, 426 points) in 1,020 career NHL contests with the Maple Leafs, Avalanche and Flames. \u201cI wasn\u2019t quite sure if I\u2019d be given the platform and just being able to put it out there, but now the Nazem Kadri Foundation has been founded over a decade ago and we\u2019ve been able to contribute millions of dollars to various beneficiaries and communities, so that\u2019s one of the things I\u2019m most proud of throughout my career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2013 Calgary Flames forward Nazem Kadri has seen the dream of becoming an NHL player and winning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-356449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}