The Viera Firm’s Todd Pokrywa High Fundraiser for ‘Hockey Helps the Homeless’ Occasion for Second Consecutive Yr

Pokrywa was the highest occasion fundraiser, generated greater than $10,000 for the trigger

BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – Todd Pokrywa, the President of The Viera Firm in Brevard County on Florida’s Area Coast, has a giant and caring coronary heart for serving to others, and for the second consecutive yr, participated within the Hockey Helps the Homeless Bay Avenue Match at Scotiabank Pond in Toronto, Canada.

Just lately, the philanthropic government traveled to his childhood hometown of Toronto, Canada, to as soon as once more take part within the Hockey Helps the Homeless Bay Avenue Match fundraiser.

In his successful type, Pokrywa was the very best fundraiser for the second straight yr and efficiently raised greater than $10,000 for the trigger.

“I’m very proud to have been in a position to take part on this nice occasion to assist others,” stated Pokrywa.

Reuniting along with his Increase 97.3 teammates, Pokrywa and his crew raised greater than $20,000 because the third-best fundraising crew, whereas the event raised a complete of $300,000 for homeless help companies.

A gifted hockey participant in his personal proper, Pokrywa performed on the Increase 97.3 FM crew with NHL Alumni Georges Laraque, Christian Hanson, and Lou Franceschetti, in addition to many music business professionals, together with Captain and goaltender Steve Jones, Andy Curran, and Jim Cuddy, amongst others.

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Viera’s huge built-in community of parks and trails is among the many causes it charges within the high 20 best-selling master-planned communities within the nation. Among the many ample quantity of those outside facilities, a delightfully surprising recreation alternative exists on the outside hockey rink at La Roca Park.

The favored rink owes its existence Pokrywa and a person who has breathed hockey just about since he discovered to skate/stroll rising up in Edmonton and Toronto, Canada.

“The rink was an thought I mentioned with my crew to supply a brand new leisure alternative for residents to play curler and ball hockey, which appeals to many northern transplants and people hockey fanatics which have witnessed the sturdy development of the game in Florida for the reason that NHL expanded within the Sunbelt with groups just like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers,” stated Pokrywa.

To open the rink in correct hockey type, Pokrywa engineered for former Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender and 2009 Stanley Cup champion Mathieu Garon to host hockey clinics for Viera kids.

Viera’s reference to the Lightning – and hockey – doesn’t finish there.

“Viera is inside the official viewing space for Tampa Bay Lightning broadcasts,” defined Pokrywa. “The timing of the brand new outside rink was applicable, given the crew’s influence on the expansion of hockey packages in an increasing space of market affect and their back-to-back Stanley Cup wins.”

Viera additionally occurs to neighbor the Area Coast Iceplex, with its sturdy schedule of kids’s, youth and grownup hockey packages.

Pokrywa is not any stranger to the Iceplex, or to something referring to hockey for that matter, as he served in a really particular capability on the 2021 Legends Traditional in Toronto as a part of the Hockey Corridor of Fame induction weekend.

“I served behind the bench for the World Crew, captained by Corridor of Famer Mike Modano, as a visitor coach with Corridor of Famer Lanny McDonald and inductee Kevin Lowe in the course of the Legends Traditional as a part of Induction Weekend,” stated Pokrywa.

For a child who grew up taking part in yard hockey, such a possibility to rub shoulders with a few of hockey’s biggest gamers is an unforgettable honor.

His spouse, Cyndi, and their daughter and son-in-law joined him for the weekend, which included the added bonus of being current when good friend and just lately retired Tampa Bay Lightning broadcaster Rick Peckham acquired the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award from the Hockey Corridor of Fame for his contributions to the video games.

Pokrywa’s earliest recollections of the sport embody the outside rink his father created every winter by flooding the yard so his three sons may skate and play.

“I discovered to skate pushing a kitchen chair across the yard in the course of the winter,” he stated. “My Dad grew up taking part in hockey and he coached all of us. Each he and my Mother spent a few years operating all of us round to hockey practices and video games. I keep in mind very early mornings each weekend heading to the rink.”

Pokrywa compares his childhood to the quick story “The Hockey Sweater,” an excerpt of which was as soon as included on the again of the Canadian five-dollar invoice.

“The winters of my childhood have been lengthy, lengthy seasons,” wrote Canadian writer Roch Provider. “We lived in three locations – the varsity, the church and the skating rink – however our actual life was on the skating rink.”

Pokrywa agrees. “That was actually true throughout my childhood,” he stated. “Like many rising up in Canada, I performed hockey from the time I used to be 5 years outdated till school.”

Faculty was the College of Waterloo in Ontario, the place he earned a bachelor’s diploma in city and regional planning. When it was time to pick out the topic for his senior honors essay, Viera proved a hat trick.

“Rising up in Canada, my household vacationed yearly in Melbourne Seaside,” stated Pokrywa.

“On these household holidays, I recalled studying within the paper concerning the plans the Duda household had for a brand new city on the property often called the Cocoa Ranch. I then chosen the advantages of master-planned communities as my focus for the thesis, with a case examine of the deliberate neighborhood of Viera. When the neighborhood’s improvement was in its infancy, I met with the then-management of The Viera Firm, Brevard County and the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council to conduct my thesis analysis.”

He would later earn a grasp’s diploma in administration with a specialization in organizational management from the College of South Dakota.

Earlier than becoming a member of The Viera Firm, he was answerable for planning and building actions at trip possession big Sunterra, as a senior planning supervisor for Ivey, Harris & Partitions (now Miller Legg) skilled consulting agency and as vp of strategic affairs for Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, Inc., a land administration and agribusiness enterprise that developed one other master-planned neighborhood, Lakewood Ranch in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Pokrywa joined The Viera Firm in 2014 as senior vp of land use planning and improvement, turning into its president in 2018. He oversees planning, improvement, advertising and marketing and sale of land owned and managed by The Viera Firm, primarily in Viera.

“I like greatest collaborating with the devoted crew of execs at The Viera Firm, in addition to the various non-public and public stakeholders all through the Area Coast that assist us form the following phases of the colourful mixed-use and master-planned neighborhood of Viera,” he stated.

“It is extremely fulfilling personally and professionally to have had the chance as a scholar to study concerning the preliminary plans for Viera and to now lead The Viera Firm crew into our subsequent phases of development.”

When not having fun with all issues hockey, Pokrywa spends a few of his free time at an area mecca for one more sport, the Duran Golf Membership and its Tradewinds Restaurant.

“There’s a nice new menu and lots of occasions and actions past golf at this top-rated neighborhood amenity,” he stated, additionally noting that Duran’s common supervisor is a giant New York Islanders hockey fan.

Pokrywa, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2010, enjoys a Canadian chilly climate repair often however is at all times comfortable to return to the heat of Viera.
For him, the hockey rink at La Roca Park is extra than simply one other good amenity in a neighborhood chock-full of them.

“There’s extra to remove than mastering passing, taking pictures, or stopping the puck,” stated Pokrywa.

“Hockey taught me the worth of teamwork and lots of different necessary life abilities. There are invaluable classes discovered about working with others, time administration, respect, sportsmanship, managing feelings and dedication in striving in the direction of a collective objective. I draw on these classes every day.”