A Hockey Fan Is Driving A Zamboni 342-kms From Calgary To Edmonton For Charity

A hockey fan is raising money for charity in the most Canadian way imaginable. A morning radio host named Chris Scheetz has embarked on the journey of a lifetime. On Tuesday, July 28, Scheetz began a trip from Calgary to Edmonton on nothing but an Edmonton Oilers' Zamboni. 

The Zamboni excursion is in order to raise money for the Edmonton Food Bank.

Editor's Choice: Police Busted A 500-Person Party In Red Deer Last Weekend & It Was Absolute Mayhem (VIDEO)

The fundraiser is listed on Canada Helps and it has a total goal of $103,900. At the time of writing, they've collected over $5,000 in donations already. 

Narcity spoke to Scheetz, who explained why he decided to go with this unusual choice of vehicle for this trip. 

"I've wanted to do something like this for years, like fourteen years. I talked about this back in 2006, when the Oilers were in the Stanley Cup final," he told us. 

He said he'd have done it earlier if the Oilers played the Flames in the playoffs but that's never worked out for him. 

"This year, I was working on it. Of course, COVID-19 and the playoffs got delayed. It hit me that combining this with the food bank would be the right thing to do," said the radio host. 

We spoke to Scheetz on Day 2 of the trip and he says it's been a good day so far. 

"It was actually a really good day. I was mostly on the backroads," he said. He added that he was mostly kept off the highway for safety purposes. 

"But now I'm in a busier area," he said. "I can just tell that people are so excited. They're honking their horns, they're waving, they're taking pictures," he said. 

The total journey covers about 342 kilometres and will take about three days to complete. Scheetz said he estimates to reach Edmonton on Thursday afternoon, July 29. 

He also went through Tim Hortons on his Zamboni. But it's worth noting that he's hardly the first one in Alberta to take a rather unconventional vehicle to Tim's. 

He also picked a rather hot week to undertake the trip. "It's crazy, scorching hot. The biggest worry, of course, is to keep the Zamboni cool, because it's used to working in cold conditions. But so far so good," he said. 

Scheetz's Instagram is the one to follow if you want to see how he's faring on the drive.

Right before the trip, he said, "The City of Calgary didn’t want me to travel on their streets, but they couldn’t stop us from getting this picture at the @yycsaddledome."

Another photo taken before the trip on Tuesday shows Scheetz decked out in full Oilers gear, wearing a Cowboy hat and carrying a bright Oilers' flag. 

There's nothing quite like a fiery rivalry between teams that gets people pumped up for a charitable endeavour.