Team 55's Friday Night Lights Running Its Final Year After a Decade; Fundraiser to Continue In Subsequent Years
/The decade milestone of the “Friday Night Lights” football fundraiser for suicide awareness with Team 55 is running its last year and held at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School this Friday.
Dave Pogue at the ninth annual Team 55 “Friday Night Lights” event last year. Only one family member per player was allowed to watch the game during that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by David Tuan Bui.
The final theme for this year’s event is a homecoming for Thanksgiving weekend. Anyone who participated in the event in the last nine years is invited to attend with opening ceremonies beginning at 6 p.m. — though fans are encouraged to arrive at 5:30 p.m. — It is also a celebration of the event’s culmination over the years.
Peterborough Petes president Dave Pogue Team 55 is having its last event because the event planning takes exhausting amounts of work and feels he’s accomplished the goal of having a “decade of discussion” regarding suicide.
“It's a lot of work, it's very difficult to put on an event like this and it's stressful because tend to want to one-up ourselves every year,” explained Pogue. “The conversation has been rampant over the last nine years which is exactly what we were after.”
Team 55 will remain active in fundraising despite Friday Night Lights doing its last year.
Pouge founded the Team 55 campaign after losing his son Mitchell to suicide. The charity is named after Mitchell’s jersey number, 55 as he captained the Adam Lions football team.
Over $600,000 has been raised for suicide awareness, aiding Canadian Mental Health Association initiatives that helped launch the Assertive Outreach for Suicide Prevention program. It provides help and resources for attempted suicide victims or those contemplating it.
The double-header football games begin with opening ceremonies beginning at 6:00 p.m. then the following matchups:
7:00 p.m. - Adam Scott Collegiate and Vocational Institute vs. Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School
9:00 p.m. Holy Cross Secondary School vs Crestwood Secondary School
