Jack Hughes Joins Devils Prospects, Young Patients For Food Drive

NEWARK, NJ — Jack Hughes, the NHL’s #1 overall pick in the 2019 draft, joined several New Jersey Devils prospects and local pediatric patients for a community service project at the Prudential Center in Newark last week.

Hughes and the other Devils prospects teamed up with young patients from several RWJBarnabas Health hospitals on July 11 to take part in “The Ace Race,” which raised food donations for the Covenant House in Newark.

Their assignment? To build a mini-golf course using non-perishable food items on the main arena floor at the Prudential Center.

Pediatric patients from the Valerie Fund Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (Sameed Cannady, 12, and Matthew Blenman, 11) and Saint Barnabas Medical Center (LeeRael Aviles, 13, and Isaac Parrilla, 11) participated in the event.

The players and patients were broken into teams and each group was responsible for building a custom golf course on the main concourse. The materials used for building the course included non-perishable food items such as macaroni and cheese boxes, canned goods and jars of spaghetti sauce.

After each hole on the custom mini golf course was built, the groups competed against each other in an “Ace Race” until one player got a hole in one to determine the golf champion.

At the end of the competition, all the food items were donated to the Covenant House of Newark.

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