The Winterhawks host the Mapleton-Minto 81's on Saturday night in Port Elgin, and will be wearing the throwback jerseys of the Port Elgin Sunocos, the intermediate team that played between the 1960s and 1980s.
General Manager Don Matheson says the jerseys will only be worn once and will be auctioned off after the game, with all of the proceeds heading to the Liv-A-Little Foundation, which funds research for cystinosis, a rare genetic disease that causes a buildup of amino acid in the body, eventually leading to organ failure.
Matheson says the cause is near to the Winterhawks heart, as Liv-a-Little Foundation is named after six-year old Olivia Little of Saugeen Shores, who is one of about 75 people in Canada who live with the incurable disease and is the daughter of former Winterhawks player Chad Little.
He says the community has always been generous in raising funds for Liv-A-Little, but combining those efforts with the nostalgia around the Sunocos has been overwhelming.
"The demand seems to be pretty high, if you look on Facebook or any social media, as I'm told, there's been over a thousand hits," says Matheson, "I think it's going to be very big."
The game against the Mapleton-Minto 81's goes Saturday in Port Elgin at 7:30pm.