St. Cloud Crush Boys’ Hockey to Hand Out Charlie Boike Memorial Award Tuesday

(KNSI) – The St. Cloud Crush Boys’ Hockey Team will wrap up their regular season Tuesday night against rival Sartell, but the game isn’t the only reason emotions will be running high.

As part of Youth Night, the team will hand out the Charlie Boike Memorial Award. The honor is named after a former player who died in a crash on icy roads in December 2022 on his way home from a game against Rogers. His mother, Erika, still chokes up when she talks about the support from the community. Donations came pouring in. Since Charlie did not have any medical bills, the money piled up even after funeral expenses were taken care of.

Erika and her husband, Jeff, started the Skate Free Charlie Foundation. The scholarship set to be handed out this week is a signature issue for the nonprofit. Erika says, “When Charlie passed away, he was a junior in high school, and just to honor him and who he was and his characteristics, we started the Charlie Boike Memorial Award, and it’s basically voted on by the coaches of the Crush team, and it’s given to a junior player.”

Erika talks about Charlie’s big heart, in particular his love for the game of hockey. She says his goal was to visit rinks far and wide, as many as possible. When he was on the ice, he wore 17, and so an idea was born. Skate Free Charlie would put on a silent auction where 17 special jerseys are bid on. Erika isn’t sure if they will get there, but the ones they have lined up will surely draw some interest.

“The Minnesota Wild are sending us a team-signed jersey. Our big surprise jersey that we’re getting is from Paul Coffey. He’s sending us a jersey that we’ll auction off. We have three individual Wild jerseys.”

Elk River native Nick Perbix of the Tampa Bay Lightning will also have a jersey in the auction. Additionally, corporate sponsor Network Center Inc. is providing up to 200 adult tickets so people can enjoy the game for free. Any child wearing a youth hockey jersey also gets in free.

All proceeds will be used for the Charlie’s Court campaign. More information on the effort is here.

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