The Yelnats Cup year-end midget tournament is a feel-good event on several levels. It's widely popular for midget hockey players, especially those playing their last games of minor hockey, plus it continues to give back annually to community sporting causes.

The organization recently made $10,000 in donations from the proceeds of last spring's tournament and the largest benefactor continues to be the hockey rinks at the SLS Family Sports Centre. The centre received $5,000 while $2,500 was provided to both the local JumpStart hockey program and Sports4Life.

Robin Mitchell, SLS Family Sport Centre general manager/executive director, says the donations by Yelnats over the years do make a difference and they give back more to the centre than any other tournament.

"We're really thankful because often times these things would have to be covered in the operating budget and sometimes you have to make choices of what you can do and can't do. With the Yelnats tournament it allows us to do things that maybe we might try to put off for another year or two and because of those funds are able to do those things in the moment when it's best needed."

He says the impact of these donations is appreciated by the town's large hockey community.

With this year's donation, the centre is able to replace the motherboards on its score and time clocks in Totem One to enhance their waning brightness. They'll be able to add anti-fatigue mats to penalty boxes that further complements the heaters Yelnats sponsored previously. The funds will also help improve the timing units throughout the centre.

The 18th edition of the tournament is being held next March and, as usual, it sold out quickly. The day registration opened, two of its three divisions were filled and the other wasn't far behind. It's now officially an international event, with a team from Montana registered for the spring tournament.

"We've had teams from as far away as Ontario that have come and played but this is the first time we've had an American team," says co-chair Rana Khan.

There's many reasons why it's so popular.

Longtime committee member Ron Sabo says the ice time teams receive and the skills competition are both draws.

"I think that it's the ice time that they get," he says, "Because they get to play to four, three period stop time games and a fifth game if they make it to a final."

In addition, all the third year midget players participating, no matter where they're from, are presented with  a commemorative towel during a closing ceremony of their final game of the tournament as a lasting keepsake.

Co-chair Adele Scott says it's the support from the community that makes it all possible.

"We could not do it without Cochrane being the phenomenal community that it is because we rely on sponsorship on the part of the community," says Scott. "They make donations to the raffle table, they make cash donations and with that we're able to offer a first-rate tournament."

The contribution of the volunteers, too, can't be overshadowed, points out Sabo. Year-after-year, they contribute hundreds, if not thousands, of hours working the 50-50 draw, manning the raffle table, running the clocks and scorekeeping, organizing the refs and running around doing all those other things that makes this tournament a success.

Yelnats (Stanley spelled backwards) started with eight teams in 2000 has grown to 24 teams in three divisions (1,3/4, 5/6), with eight teams in each. The lower tier is noncontact, as per rules established by Hockey Alberta. Each divisional winner gets to parade around the ice with distinct versions of the coveted Stanley Cup.