Long Island Royals Midget 16U hockey team helps make child's Disney World dream come true

Two teenage ice hockey players from Long Island helped score a 4-year-old boy's dream goal Sunday -- a trip to Disney World.

The two players, Kyle Jadatz and Lenny Schwartz, of the Long Island Royals Midget 16-under team, reached out to Make-A-Wish Suffolk County to help raise money for the trip, a fantasy come true for Luke Carusillo of Lake Grove.

After the Royals' game Sunday at Superior Ice Rink in Kings Park, Make-A-Wish Suffolk posted on its Facebook page that slightly more than $7,000 had been raised, clinching the getaway for Luke, who has brain cancer, and his family. "We wanted to find a way to give back to the community," Jadatz said in a news release posted at atlantichockey.org, the website for the Royals' league.

Jadatz, a forward, thought of helping raise money for the trip during the summer and first shared his idea with Schwartz, a goaltender, and then with the rest of their Royals teammates.

Sunday's game featured soliciting donations from fans and a 50-50 raffle, the release said. Before the game, the Royals Midget team and other teams in the hockey organization had raised about half the funds necessary to send Luke, his parents and his two brothers to Florida in February.

"It feels good for us as a team to be able to give back to the community," Jadatz, 16, of Kings Park, said in the release.

Schwartz, also 16 and of East Islip, said reaching the goal was a team effort in the truest sense of the term. "Everyone has pitched in to try and make this happen," he said.