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Bolts' Lecavalier Behind $3 Million Gift To Hospital

JAY CONNER / The Tampa Tribune

Tampa Bay Lightning's Vincent Lecavalier poses for photos with pediactric cancer patients and their siblings.

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Carter Gaddis / The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 16, 2007

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TAMPA - It's almost impossible for fathers such as Michael Kisielewski of Sarasota and Peter Mayhew of Brandon to put it into words.

Not that they need to - their eyes reflect the weight of being a parent of a child with cancer, whether in remission or still in the grip of chemotherapy.

On Tuesday, their eyes lit up.

Tampa Bay Lightning center Vincent Lecavalier and his corporate partners in philanthropy committed $3 million toward the construction of a new All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. The $300 million medical center will replace the existing, 40-year-old facility and is scheduled for completion in 2009.

The $3 million from Lecavalier's VL4 Foundation is earmarked for a 26,500-square-foot, 28-room wing that will bear Lecavalier's name: the Vincent Lecavalier Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.

Lecavalier, Kane's Furniture and DEX Imaging will provide about half of the $3 million. The rest of the donation will be raised through events such as Lecavalier's annual Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament at the Hard Rock Cafe Hotel & Casino on Nov. 12. Registration for the event can be found at the foundation's Web site, www.vinny4.com.

The donation is a natural extension of Lecavalier's standing commitment to All Children's of $1,000 for every goal he scores and $300 for each assist he collects. He and Kane's have combined to donate more than $70,000 since 2003.

"I visit a lot of charities, and I just really liked All Children's, seeing all the kids," Lecavalier said. "I like the professionalism [of the staff], their vision. I knew these were the people I wanted to get involved with."

Kisielewski and Mayhew knew they were witnessing something uncommon Tuesday at St. Pete Times Forum. Their shared experience - both have daughters who were diagnosed with leukemia at 2 1/2 years old - brought them together through All Children's.

Kisielewski's daughter, Erin, is now 9 and needs a checkup only once a year. Mayhew's daughter, Peyton, is 3 and slightly less than halfway through the prescribed three-year course of treatments.

Both girls were there Tuesday. Kisielewski - a big Lightning fan - said he was driving home from work in Lakewood Ranch when he heard about Lecavalier's donation.

"I had tears in my eyes," Kisielewski said. "It's just overwhelming. People on the outside, they just see this athlete who's donating money. They say, 'OK, it's a good tax write-off.' But it's not just money.

"It's not just $3 million. It's hope, which is priceless."

Mayhew observed the announcement from a seat near the back as his wife, Anissa, sat in the front row and snapped digital photos of Peyton and her brother Nathaniel, 9, and sister Rachael, 6.

Peyton, the youngest child of several on the stage, alternated between jumping on her mother's lap and smiling big as she tormented her siblings. Mayhew said he does take solace from 9-year-old Erin Kisielewski's success story, and Peyton's story is chronicled at the family's Web site, www.hope4peyton.org.

All Children's is a presence Mayhew said he and his family can't imagine having been without over the past 15 months.

"We're very confident that she's getting the absolute best care at All Children's," Mayhew said. "You know, it's the scariest thing in your life as a parent. That first week [after the diagnosis] I don't even remember. I see it. It's kind of like a movie in a haze."

Lecavalier is trying to help make sure that movie finishes well.

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.

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