The Prince George Cougars are partnering with the Red Dress Society of Prince George (PGRDS) to raise awareness to stop violence against women.
The Red Dress Society has been invited to the Prince George Cougars’ Feb. 14 game where they will have a kiosk to meet fans and bring awareness to the cause.
“What a great community that we live in that we have organizations as the Cougars wanting to be a part of something much bigger than themselves and to bring awareness,” said Tammy Miese, president of the PGRDS.
“Violence against women is an issue that doesn’t ever seem to go away but when we come together collectively as a community to have these hard conversations it’s brings awareness,” said Miese, adding that she hopes these conversations spark further conversations about safety.
“Do you know where you are? Did you tell somebody where you’ve been or where you are going? Are you sure you want to get in that car with that person? It brings awareness and hopefully it changes things.”
Mr.PG is also waving the PGRDS flag in honour of February 14 which is the date of the annual Women’s Memorial March, an annual event that occurs every Valentine’s Day in remembrance of the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
The event was originated and is held annually in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side.
“The Red Dress Society actually approached us early November and we started very preliminary conversations and we had them come out and be apart of our Indigenous night and from there they got a lot of exposure and got to talk to a lot of our fans that normally they can’t reach,” explained Parker Florell, Prince George Cougars’ Games Operations Manager.
“This is a great start and a great initiative that I myself want to support personally and I know for a fact my team, and on the business side and hockey ops side, we want to be apart of this and we want to make a change.”
Florell said it’s important that the Cougars support community initiatives because the team has a platform of over 1,000 season ticket holders and sometimes has game attendance reach 4 to 6,000 people.
“That alone is huge for someone such as the Red Dress Society that is non-profit,” said Florell. “Just being able to reach some of the younger groups as well as the adults that is very important. It has to start when they are young.”
Florell explained the Red Dress Society will have a kiosk where fans can learn about their initiatives, enter a draw, and find out how they can help and there will also be red dresses hung throughout the arena.
The Cougar’s Valentines Day game takes place on Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. at the CN Centre where the Cougars will face the Saskatoon Blades.
