Flyers star Travis Konecny hopes to ‘TK-O Cancer’ with his new pediatric cancer initiative
Konency, 29, said an experience last year with a young girl who had cancer confirmed this was the cause he wanted to champion.
Travis Konecny grew up in the Flyers organization, watching leaders like Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, and Scott Laughton give back to the local community.
Now all those guys are gone, and Konecny, 29, is the elder statesman on a team littered with young players. He has signed to a long-term extension through the 2032-33 season and has three kids.
“I’ve always had interest in doing something,” Konecny said. “I’ve just never thought it was the right time.”
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Over the last year, that’s changed. In partnership with Flyers Charities, Konecny has been working toward the launch of his new charitable initiative, TK-O Cancer, which will support organizations treating and aiding families and patients with pediatric cancer.
“I’ll give a lot of credit to the Flyers team for that one,” Konecny said of the name. “They gave me a few ideas, and that was one of them, and it was kind of perfect. Something that I probably would never come up with.”
Since having his own kids, Konecny has known he wanted to get involved with helping children. Over the years, the Flyers have collaborated with various hospitals and organizations as part of their Hockey Fights Cancer initiatives, including the annual home renovation project with Michael’s Way.
His new initiative includes a grant supporting pediatric cancer programming at a local 501(c)(3) organization in the greater Philadelphia area, and events to come during Hockey Fights Cancer month in November.
Konecny said he’s had “some great experiences” working on the Flyers’ existing initiatives since he’s been in the organization, but a visit last year helped solidify for him that he wanted to center his own efforts on pediatric cancer patients.
“We were drawing some design on skates that we were wearing, and it was a pretty awesome experience,” Konecny said. “Her name is Frankie, and she’s quite a light every time you see her. She was holding court in the room. She’s a pretty awesome girl.”
As part of the initiative, Konecny will launch a line of merchandise that he helped design to raise money for the grant and other future initiatives.
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That includes a few T-shirts available now at the team store and online, plus a hat Konecny, who is rarely seen without one, has been designing for months.
“When I come across a hat that I like outside of hockey, in day-to-day life, I threw a couple of those hats at them, so then they could try to make something similar to that,” Konecny said. “I wanted to make it something that was cool that people would want to wear, and that guys in the locker room would wear.”
