HOT CORNER: Benefit planned for Mike (Pinky) Gallant

Mike (Pinky) Gallant was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer in September 2015.
For almost 3 ½  years, he has been in a battle with this dreaded disease, undergoing hormone treatments, radiation treatments and taking chemo pills.
Those who know Gallant know what a genuine nice person he is. Although the treatments have been hard on him, he continues to begin each day with determination and a positive attitude.
He always greets family and friends with a smile. He is currently undergoing aggressive chemo treatment, and an experimental immune therapy treatment every three weeks in Moncton, N.B. This latest round of treatment is to help slow the progression of the disease, but it does come with severe side effects.
Gallant has been employed with Kensington Agricultural Services in sales for the past 23 years, but will retire to the comforts of home to spend more time with family and recover from these aggressive treatments.
Friends are organizing a large benefit auction and appreciation night for Gallant on Friday, Feb. 1, at Credit Union Place in Summerside.
It is hoped that a lot of money can be raised for Gallant to ease the financial burden that comes for those in a battle with cancer. Organizers welcome your donations, and no doubt the business community will come through in a big way for one of our communities outstanding citizens. Family, friends, customers, former teammates, hockey fans and all who had any association with Gallant are welcome.
Islanders are always very generous in support of these causes, and no doubt that will be the case here. All the best goes out to Gallant and his family, and those helping to make sure the benefit night will be a huge success.

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Active winter season
If you wish to stay active this winter, then you may want to check out what the City of Summerside has to offer as part of its active winter season. Cross-country skiing, outdoor skating, sledding and snowshoeing are just a few activities you can take part in.
What promises to be a couple of action-packed days takes place next weekend as Summerside hosts, for the first time, the Barbegazi Winter Fest. Barbegazi means Frozen Beard and brings to mind North Americans’ love affair with winter through a family winter action sports festival.
“It All Happens Here” is the slogan for Credit Union Place and, without doubt, that is the case for this upcoming Barbegazi Winter Fest.
Some of the outdoor activities to take part in include human curling, snowball slingshot, tree throwing, electric fat biking and snow skating to name just a few activities planned.
Inside there will be bowling, swimming and skating amongst other activities. The Barbegazi Winter Fest takes place next Friday from 4 to 9 p.m., and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. It sounds like a whole lot of fun for both participants and onlookers, and I am anxious to witness what human curling is about!
Hopefully, the weather cooperates, and this Winter Festival can be a huge success.

NHL   
Anyone who saw the fight between Cornwall's Adam McQuaid of the New York Rangers and Ryan Reaves of the Vegas Golden Knights this week witnessed a good old-fashioned hockey fight.
McQuaid had laid a check on the Golden Knights’ Max Pacioretty,  and – as is so often the case these days in the NHL – he had to answer the bell when the Vegas tough guy challenged him. Although McQuaid came out on the short end of the fight, promptly answering the bell against the toughest player in hockey shows what a fearless competitor he is.
Even Vegas coach and Summerside native Gerard (Turk) Gallant commented the next day on Hockey Central at Noon about McQuaid being another tough P.E. Islander. McQuaid came out of it no worse for the wear, but earned a ton of respect for his part.
Fighting is down significantly in the NHL, with only 18-per-cent of games this season having at least one fighting major.

Playoff preview
Could Saturday night’s Toronto/Boston NHL game be a playoff preview?
Although just past the halfway point of the season, these two teams are on a collision course to meet once again this year. Neither is going to catch high-flying Tampa Bay, which holds a 12-point lead on the second-place Leafs. Both Boston and Toronto should finish ahead of division challengers Buffalo and Montreal, leaving a probable first-round division series between the Original 6 rivals.
The Bruins beat the Leafs last year in a seven-game opening-round series.
Have a great week!

Joe MacIntyre is a local life insurance broker. His column appears every Saturday. Comments and suggestions can be sent to [email protected].