2 young girls worked to save a Pennsylvania hockey deck. The Philadelphia Flyers stepped up and helped.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A much-needed makeover is coming for a beloved Montgomery County hockey deck – all thanks to two best friends and the Philadelphia Flyers.
Natalie Van Druff and Lilly Walter have been fighting to save the deck from being turned into a pickleball court in New Hanover Township, and then they rose to the challenge when their township said to come up with a plan to reform it.
"We were kind of just really in shock, like, 'Oh my God, they're going to take away our rink away that we played on not only for hockey but like just rollerblade, ran around on.' We're like, no, we have to save this rink,'" Natalie said.
Little did Natalie and Lilly know, the Flyers had been paying attention all along to their fight to save the rink.
"The minute I got the press clippings, I forwarded it to the charities team, to the head of the communications department and said, 'You guys, we have to do something,'" Blair Listino, the president of Flyers Charities, said.
The Flyers invited Natalie and Lily to their training center in Voorhees, New Jersey, where they were met by forward Garnet Hathaway and a $200,000 check to repair their hockey rink.
"Me and Lily were just like, 'Oh my God, this is real life,'" Natalie said. "We were just really, really happy. There's no words to describe the feeling that we felt."
Lilly said Flyers mascot Gritty even jumped out from behind a wall, and the experience was "absolutely amazing."
And the two girls know exactly what they'll need to fix up the rink, including new hockey nets, a penalty box, boards, tiles, among other things.
"To see little girls dig in and put in this effort is truly amazing," Listino said.