Hockey tournament raises $25K for local nurse with lung cancer

AUBURN — Hundreds of people attended the two-day Celebration of Courage Co-ed Hockey Tournament last weekend, raising $25,000 for Amy Richard of Hebron, a young mother and local lung cancer nurse who has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

In past years, the tournament has raised about $12,000.

“It was amazing!!” Richard wrote in an email this week. “The support has been overwhelming in a very good way.”

Richard, 42, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in January. Her story appeared in the Sun Journal on March 4.

A week later, the Celebration of Courage Co-ed Hockey Tournament held this year’s games in her honor.

Richard’s husband, Chris, has played in the tournament for years for other families dealing with cancer. This year he played for his own.

Organizer Taylor Bourque said the tournament included more than 200 skaters. Each day, hundreds of people — “at least,” she said — packed the Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn to watch the games.

“It was great turnout,” Bourque said. “It was unbelievable,”

Amy Richard at home in Hebron with her children, Owen, left, and Olivia, in a photo taken earlier this month. The Celebration of Courage Co-ed Hockey Tournament has raised $25,000 for Richard, a local lung cancer nurse who has herself been diagnosed with lung cancer. (File photo/Sun Journal)