AK Team

Unlike the Vikings or the Twins, The Minnesota Wild may be the only Minnesota based sports team that our entire office can come together support. Being based in Minnesota, many AK employees either grew up playing the game of hockey or got introduced to the game early in their lives. I actually played against the Wild assistant captain Zach Parise in his youth only to get beat 14-2 back when Zach played for Bloomington Jefferson before heading to Shattuck for his High School years.

As the NHL playoffs began this year, the office hockey chatter also picked up. We decided to share our Wild Pride by having a "Wild Gear Day" in honor of the first game of the playoffs. There were some up and down moments in the first series against the Blues but the Wild persevered and ended up winning the series after 6 games. After the Wild took down Blues in Round 1 the emails started flying. A couple of our manufacturers located in and around Chicago started emailing about the upcoming match up between the Minnesota Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Tony Sineni from RBI Rack Builders Inc based in Quincy, IL was one of the first. So after a couple emails back and forth, we decided on a friendly wager BUT we made sure that it was all in the name of charity. We wanted to show our pride in our NHL teams but we also thought that a charitable donation would be the most meaningful prize. So here is what AK & RBI agreed upon:

If the MN Wild win the upcoming playoff series against the Chicago Blackhawks we would like you to donate 800 meals from RBI to Feed My Starving Children https://www.fmsc.org/  in Coon Rapids, MN. We will personally deliver the check sporting our Wild gear and taking pictures.

In turn, if the Blackhawks WIN the series AK will donate the same value to a Charity of your choosing.

They proudly accepted.

But the fun didn't stop there…

Next, we reached out to one of our favorite industry associations MHEDA based out of Chicago, IL and offered the same friendly wager:

If the MN Wild win the upcoming playoff series against the Blackhawks we would like you to donate 800 meals from MHEDA to Feed My Starving Children https://www.fmsc.org/  in Coon Rapids, MN. We will personally deliver the check sporting our Wild gear and taking pictures.

In turn, if the Blackhawks WIN the series AK will donate the same value to a charity of your choosing.

They also proudly accepted.

Then to add even more to the mix AK’s Jerry Fredrickson and Josh Smith had already been working out a friendly wager with Kevin Risch from Mallard Manufacturing based in Sterling, IL. But this wager has some history. Unfortunately for AK’s Senior Design Specialist Jerry Fredrickson, he has been on the losing side of the bet for years. Last year he had to wear a Blackhawks jersey to a Minnesota Wild home game at the Excel Engery Center. But to switch things up this year, AK & Mallard agreed to the same terms as with MHEDA & RBI, all for the sake of charity.


Jerry is ready for revenge against John Fiori, Mallard Manufacturing and the Chicago Blackhawks… all in the name of charity.

Enjoy the series and no matter which NHL team wins, the true winner is the charity organizations…

LET’S GO WILD!

Thank you: