Gaudreau family raises more than $500,000 for charity with the help of NHL superstars

You may recall that back in May the entire hockey world showed up in support of the Gaudreau family at the inaugural Gaudreau Family 5K Walk /Run and Family Day at Washington Lake Park in southern New Jersey.

The entire Florida Panthers made the trip out to participate in the event, along with several of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau's former teammates.

Today, the Gaudreau Family announced that the event raised over $500,000, enough to break ground later this year on an accessible playground at the special education school where the hockey players’ mother Jane Gaudreau works.

From money raised in the walk/run, along with contributions made in memory of Johnny and Matthew, the family have raised enough money to begin construction of a new accessible playground at Archbishop Damiano School, where Jane Gaudreau and her daughter Kristen work. The playground was a cause John and Matthew had begun to champion in honour of their grandmother Marie, who spent 44 years at the school and died in 2023.

In effect, this is a local legacy for both Johnny and Matthew.

The playground initiative began in 2020 but raising funds over the last five years has been a slow-go. That's when the NHL community stepped in.

“We heard so much from everyone how much they appreciated everything (the brothers) did for the community, and so they turned around and helped us out,” Gaudreau said. “We heard a lot of nice stories, a lot of people were just so generous, just wanting to be there for our family and whatever they could do to keep John and Matty’s legacy alive, which is what we wanted from the playground and to go forward from here.”

Now that the money has been raised, the family will do what good all good hockey families do: Get down to work.

The new playground has been staked out and the necessary equipment has been ordered, but there's still work to do before they can break ground.

“It’s just planning out our community build, which we’ll need assistance on,” Jane said.

The playground is expected to open in time for the next Gaudreau Family 5K Walk is tentatively scheduled for May 16, 2026.

Johnny Hockey forever!