New Jersey Devils Led by NHL’s #1 Overall Pick Jack Hughes – Join Forces with RWJBarnabas Health Pediatric Patients for “The Ace Race” Community Service Project…Mini Golf Course Built Out of Non-Perishable Food Items

Led by Jack Hughes, the NHL’s #1 overall pick in the 2019 draft, on Thursday, July 11^th, the New Jersey Devils development camp prospects joined forces with pediatric patients from RWJBarnabas Health hospitals for The Ace Race – a community service project which involved building a mini golf course using non-perishable food items on the main arena floor at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.

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 (12-year old Sameed Cannady and 11-year old Matthew Blenman) and Saint Barnabas Medical Center (13-year old LeeRael Aviles and 11-year old Isaac Parrilla) participated in the event, alongside the development camp players.

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, spaghetti sauce jars, etc.

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

At the end of the “competition,” all the food items used to create the custom mini-golf course were donated to the Covenant House of Newark.

RWJBarnabas Health is the Official Healthcare provider of the New Jersey Devils.