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Santa’s big white beard flowed over his shoulders as he sprinted on hockey skates from one end of Rizzo Rink, 1001 S. Front St., to the other, ice shavings flying into the boards as he came to an abrupt stop. A couple dozen skaters parted the ice to encourage the race and cheer on old St. Nick.
Santa turned up for a good cause — beating cancer. The night was put together by Broad Spectrum Sports’ Rob Giannone, 23, and Danny Ricciardi, 23, who have been making an active effort to put a good and charitable face to their growing media network. Their second annual “Holiday Relay at Rizzo” occurred Saturday night and raised $2,000 that will go toward the American Cancer Society’s South Philadelphia chapter.
Nearly 50 area residents and New Jersey visitors came out for the cause, snacking on provided pretzels and hot cocoa. The $15 admission fee went towards skate rentals and afforded entrants raffle tickets to drop into cups stationed in front of a bounty of donated gift baskets and prize packages.
“We like to give back to the community, and this is our marquee event,” Giannone, one of the co-owners of Broad Spectrum Sports, a collective media effort they call “an independently-owned Philadelphia sports network,” explained.
He and his co-captain are fixtures at the rink, coaching one of the four very popular 8- to 10-year-old in-house teams.
Giannone’s been more of a Jersey-based roller-hockey enthusiast, but Ricciardi’s a local who played hockey for Ss. Neumann Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St.
The latter figure, a resident of the 900 block of Moore Street and the youngest of three brothers, laughed as he confessed the Saints had a history of fighting that stalled the program and earned it a suspension or two.
“I don’t think they have a team anymore,” he said of his alma mater.
But there was no fighting in the rink on this night. Last year, their first event yielded a stellar $4,000 donation towards finding a cure for cancer. But their enthusiasm for this kind of contribution to the cause, by involving the community and soliciting loads of donated goods and space, is unwavering despite a slightly smaller amount raised Saturday.
“Learning from last year, our operational and budgeting costs allowed us to contribute a much larger percentage of the proceeds this year to Relay For Life,” Giannone said in a post-mortem summary of the night. “So based on the things we did well and areas for improvement from both this year and last, you can count on the third annual ‘Holiday Relay at Rizzo’ being the best one yet!”
“We want to put strength behind what we say and what we do,” Broad Spectrum Sports’ Twitter czar Sean Betesh said.
“We have a much bigger purpose behind what we do; we’re not just some Twitter handle or blog,” he said.
Broad Spectrum’s team is comprised of bloggers and writers who are passionate about local sports but want to do more than just write about it. With the inclusion of a commitment to community involvement and charity, they’re a team with a mission beyond media.
It all started in 2009 with the Orange Update, a Flyers-only blog that’s now just one of five entities encapsulated in the BSS umbrella. They concentrated on Flyers coverage, earning a coveted pair of seats in the Wells Fargo Center press box, 3601 S. Broad St., until spring ’11 when they kicked off the Buzz on Broad, a blog that turned its eye on all four Philadelphia teams with Phielders Choice, a Phils blog; I-76ers, an NBA-themed feed; and Total Sports Live for college athletics.
“They’re going to get bigger,” South Jersey’s Kerry Denesha, who was holding her son Zander, a 3-year-old who became the beneficiary of one of BSS’s first Facebook contests, said.
The contest solicited letters that explained why they should get to meet Flyers captain Claude Giroux. Denesha penned a letter from her then 1-year-old son’s perspective, and it won.
“They set us up in a booth and gave him an autographed puck,” the proud mother said of the Dec. 19 game against the Columbus Blue Jackets that featured a five-goal third-period outburst from the home team to score a 5-4 win. “Ever since then I’ve come to every event.”
She’s not a supporter, though, just because the organization got the lifelong Flyers fan to a game. She’s proud of everything they’re accomplishing as a collective bent on charity and salutes their community work, especially for kids.
“To say that we were here from the beginning is not something he or I will regret,” Denesha said.
Betesh proudly cited a few landmark growth spurts the collective’s witnessed in the recent past.
“We’ve grown. We had around 1,300 [followers] before the [NHL] lockout [at the end of 2012],” the social media hound, whose peers have since eclipsed the 3,000-followers mark, reported.
For a while they were recognized for their Flyers podcasts, getting retweeted and shouted out on the radio for their interviews that featured call-ins and studio visits from actor David Boreanaz, Tony Bruno from 97.5, Lauren Hart (the Flyers’ “Star Spangled Banner” singer) and Cherry Hill native and Ottawa Senator Bobby Ryan.
Part of what’s inspiring about this collective is that they do it all on their own time. Everyone involved does it as a side gig after, essentially, working 9 to 5. But it seems like, at least for Ricciardi, a local commitment to Rizzo Rink and the community around it runs in the family.
“My dad coached for years,” he said. “I played for years here, and my brothers played here. I’ve been volunteer coaching since I was 14.”
The occasion also honored friends and family who’ve passed as cancer victims, one of whom being Giannone’s maternal grandmother. He and his team’s charitable efforts don’t just sit on the laurels of the annual Rizzo Rink event — BSS’ spring Relay For Life Walk team was the No. 1 team for donation collection.
“Last year, their team raised around $2,500 for the Relay For Life cause. As I’m sure you can already tell, they work very hard,” Michelle Rumbaugh, the South Philadelphia Chapter of Relay for Life’s president, said. “Danny and Rob are both great guys who are very dedicated to the Relay For Life cause. They are an asset to the Relay For Life committee. Their help and commitment to this cause really means a lot.”
Contact Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117. Comment at southphillyreview.com/news/features.
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