Article content

Eric Gryba’s beard is who he is, just like Brent Burns or Joe Thornton, only their hair grows wild.

But Wednesday morning, the Edmonton Oilers’ defenceman willingly lost a piece of his identity when 10-year-old Ethan Hughes, a patient at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, shaved it off at the Rogers Place Hall of Fame room because of Gryba’s enduring interest in Garth Brooks’ Teammates For Kids’ Foundation. It raises funds for children’s health, education and inner-city out-reach programs.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Oilers defenceman Eric Gryba shaves beard for charity Back to video

Brooks, who’ll be at Rogers Place with wife Trisha Yearwood, for shows from Feb. 17-25, started the foundation and Gryba started donating to it when he first played for the Ottawa Senators.

“They cover all the overhead costs so that 100 per cent of the money goes to the kids,” he said.

Gryba posted a video to social media a week ago, calling on fans to ‘like’ the video on the Edmonton Oilers Facebook page. If the ‘likes’ reached 5,000, Gryba said he’d donate $5,000 to Teammates for Kids. Brooks caught wind of it and said he’d match the five-grand donation if the video had 25,000 ‘likes’.