Lindsay Iaquinta, a young ambassador for the Henrik Lundqvist Foundation and a freshman at Indiana University, has raised money for the Garden of Dreams throughout the year. Lindsay has been fortunate enough to be able to attend Rangers games from a young age and remembers the joy it brought her going to these games for the first time. She would like to share that joy with other children, so she chose to do her independent service project with the Garden of Dreams. This will allow kids and their families to attend NY Rangers games free of cost. These kids would otherwise never have the opportunity to do something like this.
Lindsay set up an online donation page where she posted on social media to get word out about her cause. She raised over $1,000 from that alone but wanted to try to raise more. She hosted a raffle at her local pool club, where she is a lifeguard and has been a member for most of her life. She educated local shop owners about the Garden of Dreams mission, and most were willing to donate something to give away at the raffle. She put six baskets out, and each had a different theme. The themes were: NY Rangers, which contained a signed picture and puck by Henrik Lundqvist. A Brooklyn Nets Basket, which had four game tickets, four t-shirts, and two hats. A kids basket, which contained a year-long family pass to a local zoo, a Nerf gun, a giant deck of cards, a soccer ball, and more. A Fish and Game Basket, which contained things that had to do with the pool club – a bottle of wine, a water ball, and a reserved table for Labor Day weekend. A Shop Local basket which had four gift cards from local stores. And lastly, a NY Yankees basket, which had a framed picture of Aaron Judge hitting his first home run, and a gift card to a sports memorabilia shop. Flyers were also handed out to members walking in to promote the raffle. The event took place July 26th-28th, and the winner’s names were drawn on July 29th.
The raffle raised around $2,000, and the total raised was $3,105, all going towards the Garden of Dreams.