For the past 12 years the enthusiastic Steve McNeil has been holding marathon skating sessions of 19 hours and 26 minutes to raise funds and awareness for the Alzheimer Society. The length of the marathons was chosen to honour his mother Eunice, who was born in 1926 and lost her own battle with Alzheimer after nearly 20 years with the disease.
This weekend the postal worker is back on the ice for another lengthy skate at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square. But he’ll be skating to raise funds and awareness for all charities, not just the Alzheimer Society.
It was the loss of his wife Tina to brain cancer 18 months ago that made the 60-year-old McNeil rethink his motivation for the annual events. .
“We were sitting in our living room watching the news and her leg started twitching,” McNeil recalls. “We went to the hospital, and four hours later a doctor came into the room with some test results and told us she had a brain tumour. She died 39 days later in Sunnybrook Hospital.”
One of the last things Tina said to him was “from bad comes good”. With that in his mind, McNeil pushed on with his Alzheimer skates last January, organizing a successful event in Kingston that drew members of rock band The Tragically Hip and the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs. But he had a revelation driving home the next day.
“It’s been an honour and a privilege going across the country twice and skating 35 times for the Alzheimer Society,” says the Etobicoke native who had been with Tina for 33 years. “But I couldn’t see myself skating for just one charity anymore. I was in the car with my buddy and he said ‘you get along with everybody, why don’t you just skate for everybody?’. So that’s what I’m doing now.”
A devastated McNeil spent some months putting his life back together after Tina’s passing. He bought a new fishing boat last spring and contemplated his next moves. Then he connected with a photographer named Cheryl who had come out to some of his skates in 2023. The couple eloped last June and McNeil moved to Shelburne to start his new life with her.
“I’m in a really good place right now, all things considered,” McNeil tells The Local. “I’ve been really fortunate.”
In the meantime McNeil says he has spent a lot of time learning as much as he could about other charities, making an effort to get out to charitable events each weekend to meet the people involved.
That has allowed him to make connections with a number of different organizations. For the past three years he has declared the second Saturday in January as National Skate Day for Charity, and he encourages all organizations to get involved.
“All they have to do is get the word out to people through their websites and their social media,” McNeil explains. “They can organize their own skates, too, but on that day they just need to encourage people to donate $19.26 to their charity.”
He admits that his decision to open up his efforts to other organizations has created a bit of confusion for some people.
“I’ve been asked how I’m going to track how much money gets raised,” he says. “I’m really not concerned about that. I gave up that train of thought years ago. I’ll leave that up to the charities. I’ll do the skating, and people can decide where they want their donations to go.”
He estimates that over the years he’s spent almost 700 hours on the ice across Canada. That has helped him learn what the three keys to fundraising are.
“If you get people’s interest, you get their attention,” he explains. “And if you get their attention, you get their involvement. Whether that’s a monetary involvement, or some kind of community involvement, it doesn’t matter. If you can’t help out with money, you can help out in other ways.”
Niagara-on-the-Lake residents will not see McNeil’s bright yellow hoodie, wild AC/DC pants and his ever-present thunderstick on the rink behind Wayne Gretzky Estates Winery this year,as they did in December, 2020 and January, 2022. The 2022 event raised close to $2,000 for the Alzheimer Society of Niagara.
But he promises to return hopefully in 2025.
“I’m already thinking about next year,” says McNeil. “I hope to be back there next January 26, on Wayne’s birthday. That was probably my coolest skate out of the 35 times I have skated in this country, to do it there on his birthday. That’s a sacred place to me. I heard through a friend that Wayne knew that I was there, that was cool to find that out, too.”
McNeil will be hitting the Nathan Phillips Square ice just after 12:00 a.m. this Saturday, January 13 and skating until 7:26 p.m., not long after the Toronto Maple Leafs face off against the Colorado Avalanche over at the Scotiabank Centre. The public is welcome to join in. For information about McNeil and his efforts to support all charities, visit 1926skate.com.