On the night of April 29, Club Roma on Vansickle Road in St. Catharines was filled to capacity as 650 people attended the 2nd Annual Sports Celebrity Dinner in support of the Niagara Peninsula Children’s Centre.

Accolades in huge numbers poured in from the attendees who are already making plans for next year’s event in an effort to avoid the disappointment of perhaps not getting a ticket.

Head table guests included NHL greats Henri Richard, Yvan Cournoyer, Dennis Hull and Ed Chadwick, Canadian Football League Hall of Famer Angelo Mosca, Hamilton Tiger-Cats General manager Bob O’Billovich, offensive lineland George Hudson Jr., and some of his teammates. 

There was a large contingency of Niagara Peninsula Athletes who have made their mark in various sports.  They included Frank Peter, prolific in basketball and tennis, Charmaine Reid who won five Canadian National Badminton Championships, Kathy Boyes 2007 competitive rowing coach of the year, Brock University’s Murray Nystrom, who was named University Hockey coach of the year and Niagara Ice Dogs Governor Bill Burke and President Denise Burke who was awarded St. Catharines Sportsperson of the year.

Dennis Hull is well known not only as a great hockey player, but also for his hilarious talent as an after dinner speaker.  As usual he had the crowd in stitches and the call is already out to bring Dennis out next year.     

Another highlight of the evening occured when Norm Defelice, Ken Croft, Robert Gera, Johnny Mouradian and Neil Stevens were honoured as the 2008 Inductees of St. Catharines Sports Hall.

Staff from Astral Media Niagara’s three radio stations presented NPCC Foundation Chair Jack Foster was a cheque of $200,000. the amount raised in the 2008 Have-A-Heart Niagara Kids Radiothon while representatives from Club Roma made a presentation as a gesture of their continued support to the Children’s Centre.

It will be a memorable night for all who attended because an added attraction was the opportunity to have a picture taken with both the Stanley Cup and the Grey Cup which were brought in for the evening.