Suns Alumni Association
Alumni
Dear Sun Valley Suns Alumni,
As we approach our 48th year, the Suns and Alumni have news to share. After a few challenging years, the Sun Valley Suns Alumni Association (SVSAA) is back and actively engaged in a membership drive and fund-raising effort. The purpose of the association will continue to be focused on keeping everyone who loves Suns Hockey involved and up to date on all that is Suns Hockey but more importantly to help to assure that Suns Hockey is here in another 48 Years. To think it all started when George Gund leased the land for a rink from the Sun Valley Company for one dollar.
The team and the organization has been graced with some incredible support, from George Gund and John Weekes, in the formative years and since that time a myriad of alumni have chipped in both financially and with their time to assure that the season starts every fall. Our newest coach, Ryan Enrico and former coaches like John Burke (current Director of Hockey Operations), Glenn Hunter, Tim Jeneson, Chris Benson and Steve Morcone have followed closely in the footsteps of the founders. In addition, The Suns Foundation, Inc. has played a key role in connecting the team with worthy non-profits in the valley as a way for the team to give back and allowing donors to see their contributions allocated responsibly. This connection was the brilliant idea of coach Hunter and the tradition continues based on recurring annual contributions.
This new arm of the Suns is specifically set up to help fund the team’s financial needs over the long-term and on a year-to-year basis as it relates to ice time, travel, visiting team support and other necessary expenses that the team endeavors to cover through ticket sales, sponsorships, events and the annual program. Although ticket sales and other revenues have been strong based on the fan support at the relatively new Campion Ice House in Hailey (other than when Covid restrictions were imposed), please understand that your participation in the SVSAA will directly contribute to the long term financial health of the team. Our list of volunteers has been seemingly endless over the years and the players are only playing for the love of the game. To that end, as the association grows, we plan to also grow an endowment for the future. The team has relied on the generosity of supporters for years and we thought it was time to have the Suns become more self-sufficient with the help of the SVSAA.
We see this as a connection from old to new, where each year the current team can meet former players and supporters, as well as attract some of our alumni back to the valley for a couple games and an alumni golf outing. Alumni programming will be announced each year as it unfolds.
As one of the oldest continually operating hockey clubs in America we are proud of our traditions and want to see them last for a very long time. For those of you who have had the honor of playing for the team, you already know how special it is to be a Sun. For the rest of you, we want you to get a little of that feeling and invite you to come on this journey with all of us.
We have an advisory board of alumni to steer the ship but we also welcome feedback from all that share in our goal. We owe a lot to our founders and supporters and we owe it everyone to make this association really fun and a resounding success !
A final request is that each one of you pass this letter on to other Alumni and forward those email addresses to sunsalumni@gmail.com .
Thank you all,
Alumni Association Advisory Board
John Miller
David Hutchinson
Joe McCarthy
Tony Benson
David Stone
Steve Morcone
John Weekes
Glenn Hunter
George Ordway
John “Cub” Burke
Scott Winkler
