Song of the Day – MC5, “Kick Out the Jams” (For FC Buffalo)
By Seamus Gallivan
Tonight at Robert E. Rich All-High Stadium (50 Mercer Ave, Buffalo, 7:30pm, $5, 6-game season tix $25), FC Buffalo kicks off its fourth season of the original football with a match against Zanesville Athletic. The Blitzers – named after Buffalo native and CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, complete with a fan club known as The Situation Room – have been preparing for action by practicing at the Park School of Buffalo, the team of mostly local soccer products still in college keeping with their community pulse by taking time to mentor Park’s own soccer clubs, as pictured below. Read more
Song of the Day – ZZ Top, “(Somebody Else Been) Shaking Your Tree”
By Seamus Gallivan
Happy Arbor Day, Good Neighbors, a 141-year-old holiday born in Nebraska City, Nebraska, for the sake of planting and caring for trees. In its honor, the 7th annual Enviro-Fair convenes in Niagara Square today from 11am-2pm, where nearly two dozen environmental organizations gather for a celebration and exhibit of earth and ecology.
Tonight also marks the final game of the lockout-shortened 2012-13 Buffalo Sabres season, one that will go down among the more disappointing campaigns in team history with such high hopes ending without a playoff berth; the 500th game played by franchise goalie Ryan Miller could be his last, and if so, he deserves a standing ovation for representing our community with care and class, most notably through his Steadfast Foundation and its support of Carly’s Club at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Back to the trees but sticking with the Sabres, the organization continues its community commitment with a tree planting in Read more
Good Neighbors Support The Good Hood
Run for Boston on Sunday with Good Neighbors, You and Who, Liberty Hound
From Seamus Gallivan: When we last covered Buffalo journalist Julia Burke’s running exploits for the greater good this past fall, she was supporting Hurricane Sandy relief by running the canceled New York Marathon in Delaware Park instead, raising some $5,000 from a run that, as she wrote her, was originally dedicated to Girls on the Run.
This Sunday, April 21st, 9am-12pm and again in Delaware Park, Julia and running friend Beth Weinberg are gathering supporters to run and raise funds in solidarity with victims of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing, for which their Facebook event page is already approaching 900 supporters – said The Buffalo News Assistant Managing Editor Bruce Andriatch, “You’re going to need a bigger park.”
The Liberty Hound (1 Naval Park Cove) is hosting supporters with an after-party from 12:30-3pm, for which they’ll make a donation to One Fund Boston for every pint purchased.
By Julia Burke
When I learned of the Boston Marathon tragedy, I was heading home from a half marathon in Michigan; I got a call from my sister, and then saw that Beth Weinberg, a friend who ran with me in Delaware Park last fall for Hurricane Sandy relief, had messaged me asking if I’d like to do another run in the park. She had read my mind. Read more
Song of the Day – Keith Hampshire & the Bat Boys, “OK Blue Jays”
By Seamus Gallivan
Happy New Year, Good Neighbors!
Opening Day at a ballpark feels like New Year’s Day, and today marks the start of the 2013 season for the Buffalo Bisons, their 26th at the downtown stadium now known as Coca-Cola Field. Such a place offers immeasurable benefit to a community – there’s beauty in a ballpark and the game it stages, as the grace, pace and space of baseball inspires easy breathing and an escape from burdens.
As change springs inevitable in Minor League Baseball, this year The Herd is heralding new amenities to fulfill fans’ appreciation for the ballclub as well as their appetite for signature ballpark grub.
From the Bisons’ announcement of “What’s New”: Read more
Good Neighbors Support The Good Hood
Unyts and Buffalo Sabres Team Up for Blood Drive
By Sarah Diina, Director of Marketing and Communications, Unyts
Buffalo Sabres’ fans have been known to say that they bleed blue and gold, and on Monday, March 18th, they will have an opportunity to prove that. Unyts, WNY’s only organ, eye, tissue and community blood center, will be partnering with the Sabres to hold a community blood drive from 9am-3pm at the First Niagara Center. This will be the 6th year that the Sabres have held a blood drive for Unyts, bringing in close to 1,000 donors.
An exclusive Donate Life Sabres cap, generously donated by New Era Cap Co., will be awarded to the first 200 people who present to donate. Donors will also have an opportunity to meet Sabres alumni, and those who make an appointment and keep it will receive an exclusive tour of the Sabres locker room. Read more
Song of the Day – AC/DC, “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)”
By Seamus Gallivan
Buffalo Bills fans are used to giving their voices to the cause at Ralph Wilson Stadium; today, fans can give something more significant – blood.
Several Bills players will be in the stadium’s Paul Maguire Club (1 Bills Drive, Orchard Park, 10am-7pm) as the team joins the American Red Cross in hosting a blood drive. All presenting donors will receive a complimentary Buffalo Bills/American Red Cross t-shirt and 300 presenting donors will receive a pair of complimentary tickets to the Buffalo Bills home game on December 9th against the St. Louis Rams. Read more
Song of the Day – The Decemberists, “The Sporting Life”
By Seamus Gallivan
Happy Hour and the Buffalo Museum of Science might not seem like natural partners, but props are due to the museum for making them so. Tonight marks the third installment of their Sports Cafe happy hour lecture series and a twist in spotlighting their current Science of Sports exhibition – here’s the scoop from the source – Read more
Running for Girls on the Run
By Julia Burke
My first memory of running – not running in a game of tag, or running downstairs to get a glimpse of the presents under the Christmas tree, or running from bees, but running just to run – is the President’s fitness test when I was in middle school. I dreaded no part of the test more than the one-mile run. My best friends, athletes all, finished the distance with rosy cheeks and eyes lit up, thoroughly enlivened by the challenge. I started off running and then had to walk, struggling not to cry as my chest tightened up and my leg muscles burned. I came home furious. My dad, a Marine and avid runner, suggested we try running together. Read more
