Kurt Wilkie grew up in Elmira, Ontario one year younger than Dan Snyder. As a child, he played street hockey with Dan and his brother Jake.

As he got older, many of Kurt's friends played for the local Junior B hockey team, the Sugar Kings, along with Snyder. Wilkie continued to follow Snyder's career and attended his games an hour and a half away in Owen Sound when Snyder began playing major junior hockey.

So when Wilkie, 25, got married this past August, he made an unusual gesture, one that touched the Snyder family. Instead of giving out favors - key chains and the like - he and his wife Amber chose instead to make a $200 donation to the Dan Snyder Memorial Fund and gave bookmarks informing people with what they did.

An avid hockey fan, Wilkie hopes to someday attend Sugar Kings games in a new rink dedicated to Dan Snyder. The current one's capacity is 1,000. The locals call it "the phone booth" because of its inadequate space and antiquated nature.

"What better thing was there to do than to put it toward the Dan Snyder Foundation?" Wilkie asked. "Growing up here in Woolwich Township, there's nothing better you could have done."

Wilkie felt other connections with Dan Snyder. About four years ago, his brother Brendan, now 22, was involved in a severe car accident.

Brendan was in a coma for seven days and has since recovered, but not without hardship. Kurt Wilkie understood some of what the Snyders went through in those torturous days after Sept. 29.

"My brother was very, very close to passing away," Wilkie said. "[His recovery] was going slow. He still went through a rough time. My older brother [Trent] carries a picture of the car in his wallet."

Dan Snyder and Brendan Wilkie have been part of a dark phenomenon that has stricken their rural Canadian township. The township erected a monument to young people who have been killed in car accidents.

Wilkie estimates that the monument contains 15 or 16 names from the last five years. Dan Snyder's name is among them.

"It's too hard to explain," Wilkie said. "It's one of those things. It's terrible. Because there's not many of us. We all know each other. It was getting to a point where three people passed away and we thought, 'Who's next?' "