Artist: David Gunnarsson
Jake the Snake
Retro Mask
Artist: David Gunnarsson
Artist: David Gunnarsson
"For Hockey Fights Cancer Night on Nov. 24, Allen asked his designer, Dave Gunnarsson, to incorporate an image of Mandi Schwartz on his mask. Mandi, who is the sister of Blues forward Jaden Schwartz, passed away in 2011 after a courageous battle with cancer and has inspired countless bone marrow donation drives in her hometown and in various hockey circles.
"I've been fortunate that I haven't had anyone really close to me that has dealt with cancer, but so many other people have," Allen told stlouisblues.com. "I thought it would be nice to help a teammate out. I never got to meet Mandi, but I've heard all the great things Jaden says about her, and she obviously means a great deal to him. Putting Mandi on the mask was just an easy, simple thing to do."
Allen approached Jaden with the idea when they were both guests at former teammate Kevin Shattenkirk's wedding last summer. "It was Jake's idea, and Jake and his wife, Shannon, came and talked to me about it. I was pretty excited and pretty honored," Jaden said. "It was special that he thought of that, and seeing it now, they did a pretty cool job. "Jake knows our family pretty well, and he knows our story," Jaden added. "It's pretty special that he's doing that to support Mandi and our family. Obviously she had a big impact on me and our family and lots of other people. It's hard to put into words, really, but it's cool to see the impact she had."
No comments:
Post a Comment