from Rob Rossi,good work gentlemen!
Cooke, Vitale and Staal — the latter spent seven seasons with the Penguins before being traded to Carolina on June 22 — will join team chaplain Brad Henderson from Tuesday through Thursday in Port au Prince, where Henderson’s Pittsburgh Kids Foundation has helped fund two orphanages.
“As professional athletes, we’ve been given the opportunity to give back,” Cooke said. “Shame on us if we don’t.”
Henderson accompanied former Penguins Max Talbot and Mike Rupp, along with retired baseball player Sean Casey of Upper St. Clair, on a similar trip in June 2010.
The objective then was to finish a second orphanage, which needed a roof. This trip is to celebrate the opening of a recycling store that will donate its funds to the orphanages, Cooke said.
“It’s one thing for parents to preach to their kids, but until they see us set an example, I don’t think they can grasp it,” Cooke said of bringing his daughter
