The St. Francis Xavier University athletic community is coming to the aid of four of their own after a devastating early Friday morning fire in Antigonish.
A five-unit complex on Hawthorne Street burned beyond salvation in the middle of the night, claiming the condo of three X-Men hockey players and the unit owned by St. F.X. strength and conditioning coach Josh Crouse.
Two-sport athlete Catherine Kennedy (soccer and track and field) started a Gofundme campaign for Crouse in the immediate aftermath, while X-Men assistant hockey coach Zack MacQueen and St. F.X. sports information officer Krista McKenna followed suit a short time later for X players Santino Centorame, Adam Laishram and Daniel Robertson.
The fundraiser for Crouse has already more than doubled the original $5,000 goal and the campaign for the three players was more than halfway to its $6,000 target within hours.
"They're very appreciative of the community support," McKenna said. "Some of the fans who come to the games have already messaged me and offered household items they could use - dishes and furniture and stuff like that. They just want to know what the boys need and it's been great. And I'm sure even more people will come forward. A lot of the X-Men alumni and parents of the current X-Men have come forward.
"I actually had a donor who is willing to match up to $1,000 so he wanted to put the call out there to current X-Men parents and alumni to try to rally their support. He wanted to be anonymous but people in hockey are always really supportive like that. As hard as it was for the guys to lose all their stuff, they're kind of overwhelmed with all the support that's come through in just one day."
Crouse was at home when the fire broke out and escaped without any injuries but lost everything inside. The three players are back at their Ontario homes for the off-season but were planning to be back on campus for September. One of the players owned the condo.
"They had stuff in there that will be hard to replace and I don't think the guys had tenant insurance," McKenna said. "They lost all their clothing and possessions and everything they had here for school because they pretty much left everything behind for the coming school year. So all of their winter clothes were in there, like the suits they were to games, and they even had their major junior jerseys in there so there was some sentimental stuff that can't be replaced.
"But hopefully with the fundraiser we can help them replace some of their things and clothing and household items they need."
The Gofundme links are: Josh Crouse and X-Men players
