“Dream Big.”
That’s what Steve Montador wrote beneath autographs he signed for fans, and that’s how a charity in his memory will be known. The Steve Montador “Dream Big” Scholarship Fund was launched Thursday afternoon through the Buffalo Sabres, who he played for from 2009-11.
The organization made the initial $10,000 donation in conjunction with the Buffalo Sabres Foundation, the Sabres Alumni Association, current players and former managing partner Larry Quinn.
“Steve had such a big impact on our young players when he was here,” Quinn said. “I would always see him at Mothers Restaurant, he had a regular table…and he was always bringing one of our young players at the time — Tyler Ennis, Tyler Myers, Mike Weber. He really looked out for them.”
“I felt so awful when I heard the news.”
He referred to a quote from the late English author Sir Terry Pratchett: “Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”
Quinn wanted to make a contribution in his name to an NHLPA charity, but said cross-border rules made it difficult. He contacted the Sabres instead.
“They said, ‘Let’s make this bigger.’”
Steve’s father, Paul, will serve on the board. The mission statement is still being finalized, with decisions to come on how scholarship funds will be distributed. But the Sabres wanted to get things going before the end of their season, which makes total sense.
There is a crowd-funding option, through the Sabres Foundation, at sabres.com/dreambig.
No doubt this is going to do some good for the kind of people Montador would have loved to help.
