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Cairo Nomads 2nd Annual Union Hockey Tournament
0% complete
$7,314 raised of
48 donations
Last year, five of our players flew to Al Ain.
They came home with silver, the first international result in the history of Egyptian hockey.
This October we're going back to the Union Classic. And this time we want to send ten.
Who we are
The Cairo Nomads are Egypt's first organized ice hockey team and the founding club of the Egyptian Hockey League. We train on the only sheet of ice in Cairo, a rink inside Sun City Mall, roughly half the size of a proper hockey surface. I know you have seen it! That's what our players know. Half a rink, under mall lighting, in a country where most people have never seen snow.
Nobody here is paid. Everybody here pays, for ice, for gear, for tape, for the flights.
What $13,000 actually does
It buys flights and hotel rooms. That's it. No admin, no salaries, no overhead.
And for several of the players on this list, that plane ticket is their first time leaving Egypt. Their first time seeing a full-size international rink. Their first time playing a tournament in front of crowds, against national programs from seven countries.
If you grew up in Canada or the US, hockey was just there. Rinks in every town. A coach who knew your name. A parent driving you to a 6am practice. You didn't have to be lucky to be part of a team ,you just had to show up.
Our players had to be lucky. They had to find the one rink. They had to find the gear. They had to find each other.
This is us trying to give them the thing that everyone in a hockey country gets for free: the feeling of being on a real team, on real ice, playing for something.
Why it matters beyond the ten of them
The Egyptian Hockey League is actively working toward IIHF recognition the governing body of world hockey. That path is built out of exactly this: showing up at international tournaments, competing credibly, and proving a program exists here.
Every player we put on that ice in Al Ain is a line in that argument. Silver last year got people's attention. Ten players this year makes it undeniable.
The ask
$450 USD covers the hotel for 9 nights. $400 USD is the flight that gets them there. $75 USD for the visa. $75 USD for the entrance fee. $1000 USD sends the player
And here's what comes next: anything we raise over $10,000 goes directly to equipment for the junior program. That means sticks, skates (we're still using those plastic orange ones), gloves, and most importantly helmets. We're still playing 1970s hockey out here with no helmets, so getting the kids protected would mean the world. This is amazing. Thank you so, so much.
And if you can't give, share it. Genuinely. One share to the right person is worth more than most donations.
Shokran. See you on the ice.
Coach Jay (#19) Head Coach, Cairo Nomads Ice Hockey Club Sun City Mall Rink, Cairo, Egypt · @nomadsicehockey