Andrew Selover loves the sport of ice hockey.
It’s a sport the almost 13-year old, who is a student at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick, has been playing since he was age five.
One of his biggest supporters growing up was his grandmother, Carol-Lou Selover.
Selover would attend all her grandson’s games. Even though she didn’t know much about ice hockey and was more of a baseball fan, Selover would come to ice rinks with her family and try to learn as much about the sport that she could, so she could enjoy watching her grandson do his thing on the ice even more.
Unfortunately in September of 2018, Carol-Lou passed away after a long battle with Pancreatic Cancer.
“Me and my grandma were very close,” Selover said. “I will always remember going down to our shore house in the summertime and her always being there to cook us breakfast, lunch and dinner. She cared about all of us. It was always nice to have her around.”
About a little over a month after his grandmother passed away, the young Selover and his family honored her by doing the Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk done by the Lustgarten Foundation every November.
November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, and the Selover family have participated in the walk for the past two years.
While doing the walk this year to find help for those dealing with the disease that his grandmother went through, Selover and his father, Rick, came up with an idea of their own to help donate to the foundation’s research on Pancreatic Cancer.
Since Selover is currently a goalie for the Princeton Youth Hockey Association’s 14UA team, the family came up with an idea that for every save Selover makes in November, the family will donate $1 towards the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.
The family came up with a slogan for it, calling it “Saves for Grandma”.
“It just seemed like a great thing to do,” Rick Selover said. “Andrew wanted to do something in his own way to honor his grandmother. He loves playing hockey and my mom would always come watch him play. She was his biggest fan.”
Word has spread about the cause throughout the central jersey area.
So far, the Selover family has raised $1,353 as of Nov. 27. A total of $106 has been raised on the result of the amount of saves Selover has made this month.
Taping up his goalie stick with purple tape to symbolize Pancreatic Cancer before every game this month, Selover has enjoyed every minute of taking the ice and playing the best he can in net to honor one of his biggest fans and to help others dealing with the same terrible disease.
“It’s a way of bringing my grandma back,” Andrew Selover said. “I try to go out there and make a good amount of saves to help raise as much money as I can to help others in need. It feels great to help others. I know my grandma would be proud of me for doing this.”
It’s been a way for Selover to keep his grandma in his life, but to his family, it shows what type of kid Selover is and the big heart he carries with trying to help people in need.
“I’m really proud of him,” Rick Selover said. “It’s right up his alley. He’s always had a big heart. This is a message for him to use for the rest of his life in how helping others do well, will help himself do well.”
For information on the Selover Family’s “Saves for Grandma” fund, please visit their website https://events.lustgarten.org/team/265018.
Follow Steven Bassin on Twitter @SBassin_Sports