TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING CAPTAIN SUPPORTS HURRICANE HELENE FIRST RESPONDERS

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When Hurricane Helene hit Tampa Bay, it wasn’t just homes and neighborhoods that took a hit — it was the entire community.

Flood­wa­ters sub­merged streets, dam­aged hous­es, and left many fam­i­lies with­out a place to stay. First respon­ders put their lives on hold to keep oth­ers safe, often not know­ing what they’d come back to. 

See­ing the after­math first­hand, Tam­pa Bay Light­ning cap­tain Vic­tor Hed­man knew he had to help. Team­ing up with his wife, San­na, Hed­man pledged $150,000 to aid recov­ery efforts. The funds are going direct­ly to the Tam­pa Police Benev­o­lent Asso­ci­a­tion and the Coast Guard Foun­da­tion, help­ing those who were out there on the front lines while their own homes were get­ting bat­tered by the storm.

“It’s not just about writ­ing checks. It’s about stand­ing by the peo­ple who make our com­mu­ni­ty safe — espe­cial­ly when they’re going through tough times them­selves,” Hed­man said dur­ing his vis­it to the Tam­pa Police Depart­ment. The dona­tion will sup­port 11 offi­cers who lost their homes or had sig­nif­i­cant dam­age while they were on duty, serv­ing oth­ers dur­ing the chaos.

Hed­man, along with a group of Light­ning play­ers, spent the day vis­it­ing var­i­ous spots affect­ed by the hur­ri­cane. Niki­ta Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Bran­don Hagel and Antho­ny Cirelli played ball hock­ey with kids at the YMCA. Oth­ers stopped by fire sta­tions, hos­pi­tals, and spe­cial needs cen­ters to bring a lit­tle bit of joy to those recov­er­ing from the dis­as­ter. 

Hedman’s ges­ture shows how impor­tant it is for pub­lic fig­ures, espe­cial­ly ath­letes, to ral­ly behind their com­mu­ni­ties in times of cri­sis. His actions are a reminder that giv­ing back is not just a respon­si­bil­i­ty — it’s what makes a com­mu­ni­ty tru­ly thrive.

The Ath­letes for Free­dom Foun­da­tion joins Hed­man in express­ing sin­cere con­do­lences to those affect­ed by the hur­ri­cane and sends its best wish­es for recov­ery to every­one touched by the storm’s destruc­tion. Togeth­er, we stand strong, and togeth­er, we rebuild. 💙 #Com­mu­ni­ty­Sup­port #Tam­paBay­Strong