{"id":956770,"date":"2026-11-03T13:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/956770\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T13:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:06:13","slug":"long-island-cancer-centre-unveils-room-named-for-late-mother-of-islanders-schaefer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/956770\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Island cancer centre unveils room named for late mother of Islanders’ Schaefer"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. \u2014 Before he was\u00a0picked first in the draft\u00a0by the New York Islanders<\/a> last year,\u00a0Matthew Schaefer<\/a> made\u00a0his late mother’s fight against cancer before her death in 2024 a central part of what motivates him.<\/p>\n

On Monday, he added another chapter to that journey. The R.J. Zuckerberg Cancer Center on Long Island unveiled the Jennifer Schaefer Child Support Room, with Matthew, brother Johnny and father Todd on hand to see the finished product.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The room is decked out in Islanders blue and orange and has a bubble hockey table along with family photos, and counselling will be available for children of cancer patients.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve always wanted to do something,” Matthew said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what we wanted to do, and we had the idea of we wanted to be able to give back and help. But we didn\u2019t know what it was going to be, and then Northwell Health came up with this idea and we were like, \u2018This is going to be awesome,\u2019 and we were all on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Choking up in his speech before dedicating the room, Todd Schaefer said: \u201cMy wife would be so pleased. The room\u2019s exactly what she would want.\u201d<\/p>\n

His youngest son became the face of the franchise immediately and won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year. The Islanders put a cancer ribbon on the jersey they presented to Schaefer when they selected him, and at 19 he has been eager to do off-ice events to promote the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatthew actually does come to this cancer centre over and over and over again,\u201d co-owner Jon Ledecky said. \u201cHe just wants to make a difference, and I think the centre and the room reflect those values.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the latest chance for Schaefer to honour his mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I talk to my dad and my brother, we wish we had a room like this,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cIt\u2019s just crazy to think that my mom\u2019s name is on the room and it\u2019s going to be able to help kids and families. I mean, it\u2019s her. It\u2019s a bright room. Her smile would be there all the time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. \u2014 Before he was\u00a0picked first in the draft\u00a0by the New York Islanders last year,\u00a0Matthew Schaefer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-956770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956770","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=956770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}