DULUTH – The Two Harbors Youth Hockey Association, looking to defray the huge expense of its new ice-resurfacing machine, has found funding from a Seattle grunge band.
Now rather than a Zamboni, it’s a “Pearl Jamboni” that clears the ice at Sonju Arena in Two Harbors.
The youth hockey association was in search of a local business to sponsor its new Zamboni when its board members decided to toss an idea out to Pearl Jam. Executive director Jesse Lundgren, a member of the band’s official fan club, handwrote a note in the style of a concert poster with an original offer: Would they be interested in sponsoring the world’s first Jamboni?
Lundgren expected he would hear back sometime between six months and never; he received an email from a band representative within two weeks. She told him he had found the right audience: The representative was a hockey fan from Canada, Lundgren said.
The organization won’t say how much the band donated, but it’s “sizable,” association secretary Stephanie Aho said. Frontman Eddie Vedder and his bandmates will be represented at the rink for at least the next three years.
Pearl Jam designed its own art for the Jamboni, which is black with the band’s name on the side. A “PJ” in the school colors has hockey sticks crossed behind it.
“We were very shocked,” Aho said. “This is something they’ve never done before. They give back to lots of different types of things. They’ve never done a Zamboni.”
The band contributes to causes that support the environment, Indigenous communities and the homeless, according to its website. In 2016, they were among the celebrities that sent money to support children during the water crisis in Flint, Mich. Efforts to contact the band’s management were not successful.
