A former Fort McMurray Oil Baron has spent hundreds of hours putting together a sports memorabilia auction website that will raise funds for the rebuild of Fort McMurray.
Ben Sharf played 55 games for the Oil Barons this past season accumulating 27 points. He spent just a few months in the community, but when he saw the devastation of the wildfire and found out it destroyed the homes of two members of the MOB organization he felt compelled to do something.
“The impact that the city had on me, the situation that IW as in coming into a new team midway through the season and being nervous about a new beginning I guess you could say. The way it ended up I made so many good friends on that and have nothing but good memories there. When I found out that one of my best friends in Jason Hamilton and our coach Mike Brodeur both lost their homes I felt a sense of obligation to give back to a community that was so good to me.”
Sharf was hoping to have the site completed a few weeks ago but some bugs on the back end delayed his site launch until Thursday.
“I definitely learned a lot along the way and realized you should never underestimate the time table for a project like this. I couldn’t thank the kids who helped me enough we’ve probably pulled five all-nighters since we started this to make it happen.”
The slick skating pivot hopes to raise $25,000 for the United Way of Fort McMurray through his website. Some of the auction items currently available include a signed Connor McDavid rookie card, a signed Jack Eichel jersey, and an autographed and framed Grant Fuhr Jersey.
Sharf is off to Colgate University in the fall where he may take computer science, or economics and business.
You can view the website here.
