PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — There’s a much-needed makeover coming for a beloved Montgomery County hockey deck — all thanks to two best friends and the Philadelphia Flyers.
Natalie Van Druff and Lilly Walter fought to keep the card game from being turned into a pickleball court in New Hanover Township, and then they rose to the challenge when their municipality told them to come up with a plan to reform it.
“We were really in shock, like, ‘Oh my God, they’re going to take away our rink that we not only played on for hockey, but like skating, we used to run around on.’ We say, ‘No, we have to save this rink,'” Natalie said.
Natalie and Lilly didn’t know that the Flyers had been paying attention to their fight to save the rink all along.
“As soon as I got the newspaper clippings, I forwarded it to the charity team, to the head of communications and said, ‘Y’all, we’ve got to do something,’” said Blair Listino, the president of Flyers Charities.
The Flyers invited Natalie and Lily to their training facility in Voorhees, New Jersey, where they were met by forward Garnet Hathaway and a check for $200,000 to repair their hockey rink.
“Me and Lily were like, ‘Oh my God, this is real life,’” Natalie said. “We were just very happy. There are no words to describe the feeling we felt.”
Lilly said Flyers mascot Gritty even jumped out from behind a wall, and the experience was “absolutely amazing.”
And the two girls know exactly what they need to renovate the ice rink, such as new hockey nets, a penalty area, boards and tiles.
“It’s really amazing to see little girls putting in the effort and exerting themselves,” Listino says.
Siafa Lewis
