With unrivaled compassion and dedication, the Buffalo Sabres continue to provide an unwavering commitment to hundreds of individuals challenged by disability in the Western New York region. While SABAH has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with the Buffalo Sabres, the organization has greatly increased its financial and in-kind support for SABAH over the past several years.
The Sabres provide a committed source of revenue for the organization through multi-year financial support and provide multiple in-kind donations to the organization. The most generous of these offers includes the use of the First Niagara Center for the annual Celebration on Ice Show. Because of the Sabres’ generous offer to host the annual ice show, more than 600 SABAH athletes and 500 dedicated volunteers have the opportunity to showcase their talents for family and friends at the beautiful First Niagara Center. SABAH participants are extremely motivated to work hard all year for the opportunity to perform in front of more than five thousand fans at this beautiful venue.
The Sabres also provide opportunities to enhance SABAH’s fundraising efforts. One of SABAH’s major fundraising events, the annual Skate-A-Thon, is made possible because of the generosity of the Sabres. Each year, the Sabres kindly host SABAH athletes and volunteers at the First Niagara Center for the organization’s annual Skate-A-Thon. This fundraising effort is made successful by the efforts of the Sabres organization, as several Buffalo Sabres players make celebrity appearances at the event and many prizes are provided by the NHL franchise. As a result of these incentives, SABAH athletes and volunteers make extraordinary efforts to participate in the event and reach high sponsorship goals.
The Sabres also continue to support SABAH’s efforts by advocating for the organization both internally and throughout the community. The Sabres internal efforts include garnering celebrity endorsements from current players, such as current SABAH spokesperson Nathan Gerbe, and numerous other Sabres alumni. Other efforts include providing the outdoor floor hockey experience to SABAH athletes, donating multiple auction items and prizes for SABAH’s fundraising efforts, and publicly advocating for the organization on social media and other public media opportunities.
The Sabres have also initiated many new innovative approaches to solving community problems. Recently, the Sabres facilitated a union of business facilities between SABAH and Hasek’s Heroes. By combining office space at the Bud Bakewell Ice Rink, both SABAH and Hasek’s Heroes decreased business infrastructure costs by sharing office space and ice time at the facility. The partnership between the two nonprofit organizations has also decreased costs through shared personnel expenses and combined overhead costs.
With gratitude for their commitment to the Western New York community, SABAH proudly welcomes the Buffalo Sabres into the SABAH Hall of Fame. We believe that their tremendous commitment to SABAH, as well as many other regional nonprofit organizations, best exemplifies the philanthropic spirit of the Western New York region.
