JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — They're brought together by their shared bond of service and their love of hockey.
In this week's Stories of Service, we meet a Marine veteran who organized a hockey tournament for veterans to raise money for charity.
"It's changed lives honestly," said Dave Wezniak. "We've had two of our veterans share their stories with the whole room and it was completely game changing."
Wezniak is the founder of the Jacksonville Icemen Warriors, which is a hockey team made up of veterans from Jacksonville who share two common bonds: a love of hockey and a history of serving our country.
"It's something that you'll never find in any other day job you have," said Wezniak. "Once you leave the military it doesn't leave you. People's mentalities might change over time, but once you get back with your other folks you were with you build that bond and it's a whole different feeling."
Starting Friday, July 26, Wezniak and the Jacksonville Icemen Warriors hope to extend that feeling to other veteran groups. They're hosting the All Veteran Hockey Tournament at the Community First Igloo with disabled veteran teams from around Florida and other states. The Jacksonville Icemen Warriors have been part of similar tournaments in the past.
"What we've noticed has made the program such a great success is we have this small community that continues to grow," said Wezniak, "more and more people get involved and we start connecting with other teams and it's growing from there."
The Jacksonville Icemen Warriors All Veteran Hockey Tournament is free for the public to attend and there will be raffles, vendors and other activities to raise money for veteran charitable events like laying flags and wreaths at the National Cemetery.
The All Veteran Hockey Tournament starts at 3pm on Friday and resumes at noon on Saturday at the Community First Igloo on Philips Highway. More information about the Jacksonville Icemen Warriors can be found here.
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