Chronicles of Stanley: Dustin Brown uses the Cup to help military families
The Chronicles of Stanley is an occasional series this summer that tracks the Los Angeles Kings as they each get their special alone time with the Stanley Cup.
Apart from being a Stanley Cup champion, Dustin Brown is also a husband and father, which occasionally means taking a break from being the Stanley Cup champion to go get milk.
In January, Christopher Bordoni, the cousin of Dustin Brown's wife Nicole, was critically wounded by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. He died 10 weeks later.
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Needless to say, that put Semper Fi, the nonprofit that provides financial support for the families of U.S. Armed Forces members, at the forefront of the Browns' thoughts when they were discussing potential charity events to stage in the near future.
As luck would have it, Brown happened to lead his team to the Stanley Cup later that year, which meant he had a pretty neat item around which to plan such an event. On Saturday, Brown did exactly that, donating his day with the Cup to the community of Ithaca and asking them to donate to military families, in turn:
Brown brought the Stanley Cup to the Ithaca High School football field, where fans could pose for photos with it and make donations to the charity. The event raised over $12,000 for the charity.
But Brown wasn't done. From there, the Brown family and the Bordoni family visited Christopher's grave for a private moment. From NHL.com:
The Bordoni family did not want to discuss the visit, but Christopher's father described what it meant to have the Brown family immediately think of them during a time when most hockey players would be celebrating a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"The first thing that Dustin thought of, which is awesome, was how to help out," Tim Bordoni said. "Throughout Dustin's whole career, they helped out charities. This is personal to them because it's their cousin. That's the person they thought of after everything -- not this party, not any other public event. Helping out Semper Fi was the first thing they thought of."
And later Brown went to Wegman's. It was much less moving.
Follow Harrison Mooney on Twitter at @HarrisonMooney
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