MEDICINE ON ICE — HOCKEY

Karr is one of the regulars that hits the ice in Littleton, despite what life is throwing at her.

“It just gives me this high for like the rest of the week,” Karr said. “It’s like I have a whole team behind me supporting me.”

At the rink, Karr is never without a smile. She resonates with friendliness and loves to talk with everyone who is skating, usually causing her to be one of the last players to leave the arena as everyone is clearing out.

Recently, Karr went to a Colorado Avalanche game with Dawg Nation. Team legend and now President of Hockey Operations Joe Sakic spent an entire period in a suite talking with Karr and everyone else, listening to all the stories about how hockey can heal.

Richardson re ects on what the organization has grown into. It is constantly planning, giving, helping families and communities, he said.

“We didn’t envision that we would be tied into [helping] handicapped children and adults and veterans and blind hockey players,” Richardson said. “No one, including myself, could have seen this, and last year alone we were able to hand out checks around $900,000 in one year.” be.

“We started Dawg Nation, and what it was designed for was [that] we can’t be the only team in the whole area that needs help or has players that need help,” Richardson said. “So we put on a [hockey] tournament to help a couple of guys, and then we put on a golf tournament, and we put on a comedy night, and all of these di erent things in that rst year.”

After that, it just kept growing and growing.

Along the way, Donnelly found Dawg Nation. Or, rather, Dawg Nation found him. About 10 years ago, Donnelly was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

He was forced to quit his job and moved back into his parents basement because of his heart. But he found a new calling: becoming an operations manager at Dawg Nation.

He fought his heart condition with medicine at rst, but as time went on, it worsened and his heart was too far gone for the medicine to help. Doctors installed a pump in his left ventricle to keep him alive by circulating blood to his body.

He was also put on a heart transplant list, but was OK with the pump because it worked.

“I was implanted with this LVAD and all of a sudden I had a new lease on life. So I decided to get back in shape,” Donnelly said. “One day I got a wild hair to put on my skates and go get on the ice. It was just so obvious that that’s what I should be doing to stay in shape.”

Donnelly would keep getting on the ice while also learning his limits of how hard he could push his body. He decided as long as he has warm blood in his body, he’ll spend his time on the cold ice he loves.

As Richardson said, Donnelly, who relied on the team for support as he rst hit the ice, now thrives on helping others.

“He all of a sudden was in a position not to accept, but to give,” Richardson said. Or, as Donnelly said, “I use what’s left of my heart to help people.”

Recently, Dawg Nation made their way up to Minnesota. A family was in need of help, and the Dawgs responded. ey were there for Ethan Glynn, a threesport athlete in hockey, baseball and football. Some would call Glynn a superstar bound for the pros. But just 11 plays into his freshman high school football season, his life changed on a routine tackle. In one moment, Glynn became a paraplegic. A pond hockey tournament was organized, and Glynn and his family had $81,000 to help navigate the bills, thanks not only to Dawg Nation, but the wider community that supports their mission.

Sarah Karr, who lives in Parker, Colorado is another Dawg Nation member uplifted by the community.

Karr was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer that spread to her liver and given a year to live.

“Luckily, I’m giving it one heck of a run for its money,” Karr said.

And, thanks to people like Donnelly, di erences are being made on the ice. e early-morning ice time Dawg Nation gets can be a bit daunting, but one person drives the rest to be there: Van Stone.

Stone su ered a traumatic brain injury in 2018. He now faces a slew of struggles, whether it is speech, motor skills, or navigating everyday life. He was told by doctors that he would never be able to play hockey again, but he wasn’t ready to give up. Stone, with the help of the Dawgs, proved those doctors wrong.

“ is is one of the only places he can go where he is just one of the guys,” Donnelly said.

While dealing with his own struggles, Donnelly will still go out of his way to help others. It’s bigger than one person, he explained.

“What we created was a place where you can go when you know you want to help,” Richardson said.