The Tender Bridge

The Tender Bridge Using hockey and lasting relationships to create cycles of success in marginalized youth in Baltimore City. "Mr.

The Tender Bridge (TTB) was founded in 2003 by its current Director, Noel Acton. Noel", as he is known to kids in East Baltimore, has devoted his life to helping at-risk kids see and understand the alternative choices they have in life.
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The The Tender Bridge mission is to guide marginalized youth in high-violence areas of East Baltimore on the path to become productive citizens. While sports are

the hook that keep our often difficult to engage kids involved, building trusted relationships with their coach-mentors produces profound growth on their journey to adulthood.
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TTB operates continuously, year around, recruiting kids from the streets, signing them up for sports programs, and then delivering them to and from those activities. TTB helps kids participate in ice hockey, football, baseball and sailing. Many such programs are managed by third parties, while some programs are run by TTB itself.
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Like most organizations helping Baltimore's children, TTB relies on donations for its operation. What makes TTB stand out in this respect is that nearly all donations go directly to supporting kids. Money is spent on sports equipment, gas for transportation, meals with the kids, and whatever other basic kids' needs may arise.
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The Tender Bridge is a Maryland non-profit entity and all contributions are tax-deductible. For more information, write us on our page or email Mr. Noel: [email protected]

03/15/2026

It’s a great day to be a Banner

Each year the Baltimore Banners invite the community into our home to showcase our players, and spread positivity throug...
02/25/2026

Each year the Baltimore Banners invite the community into our home to showcase our players, and spread positivity through hockey. This year, our Banners are playing against a team of Baltimore area hockey enthusiasts that are rallying behind their good friend Eric Huss. Eric has recently been diagnosed with cancer, and has chosen hockey to spread positivity. In late 2025, Eric and his friends came together in Reisterstown to play and raise money for our program. We are forever grateful for Eric's desire to make the best out of any situation and heal through hockey.

We are inviting Eric's close friends into our home in Patterson Park on March 14 at 11am to rally around them, and to rally around our rink. The Banners are also dealing with negative news as Baltimore City currently plans to close our home rink permanently after this season. We are not going down without a fight, but if this is our last party in the Bubble; we are going to make it a party you can't miss.

Come watch hockey, share some smiles, and rally around our teams, our families, our friends, our rink, and our HOME. Let's show the world that this rink is worth saving.

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/banners-rink-rally

Larry and Loyalty were participants in the NHL’s Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend in Minnesota this weekend. They were incre...
03/30/2025

Larry and Loyalty were participants in the NHL’s Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend in Minnesota this weekend. They were incredible representatives of the Baltimore Banners and the City of Baltimore as a whole.

We cannot the Minnesota Wild and the NHL team for rolling out the red carpet all weekend for our players. It’s a weekend full of hockey, education, fun and new friendships that we are all sure to never forget.

It’s always a great day to be Banner.

Scroll to the end for Larry’s last surprise 🌺

We are closing in on the final days before Bridge The Gap ‼️ See yall this Sunday ‼️Mark your calendars and make sure yo...
02/14/2025

We are closing in on the final days before Bridge The Gap ‼️ See yall this Sunday ‼️

Mark your calendars and make sure you come out to Patterson Park to watch some Baltimore hockey! Please visit the GoFundMe linked in our account to learn more!

Thank you to for sponsoring our Bridge The Gap game!

02/09/2025

We’re one week away from our biggest fundraiser of the year. Bridging the gap has taken on several important meaning in the past, and this year we are honored to help women bridge their own gap in the hockey world this year! Please consider donating to support our Banners family https://www.gofundme.com/f/banners-bridge-the-gap-game-fundraiser-2025

Don’t forget to show some love to your favorite hockey team this 🏒🥅We are trying to raise money to keep our players ha...
12/03/2024

Don’t forget to show some love to your favorite hockey team this 🏒🥅

We are trying to raise money to keep our players happy, healthy, active and engaged, and growing on and off the ice. Our goal is $15k and every dollar counts! Link to donate in our bio and posted below.

Go Banners 💛🖤

https://gofund.me/4dfa3689

Happy birthday to the man who started it all, Mr. Noel! You’ve impacted the lives of many and made Baltimore a better pl...
09/20/2024

Happy birthday to the man who started it all, Mr. Noel! You’ve impacted the lives of many and made Baltimore a better place to be.

Wish Noel a Happy Birthday by supporting our current fundraising campaign and cheering Coach Matt in his half marathon effort to support the Banners. The link is below to donate!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/coach-matts-halfbannerthon

Training in the heat is no fun, and as corny as it is to say; it’s motivating to actually be running for something impor...
08/06/2024

Training in the heat is no fun, and as corny as it is to say; it’s motivating to actually be running for something important right now. I can’t wait for October 19th. Please consider donating at the link below.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/coach-matts-halfbannerthon/donate?source=btn_donate

If you need some reasons to donate here’s some stories below. If you don’t see your favorite Banner mentioned below, don’t worry there’s a few more months left for me to tug at your heart strings.

Chris is getting ready to start his freshman year at Boys Latin and hopefully play on their (defending State Champion) Ice Hockey team. He’ll need all the educational, emotional, and likely financial support he can get from our volunteers and supporters.

Daryl is getting ready to start his career of NCAA football and his pursuit of a Bachelor’s Degree at West Virginia State University. He held up his end of the bargain by obtaining a partial athletic scholarship, and we are motivated and focused on closing the gap on his tuition and living expenses.

Older players like Ronald, Melly, Ray and many others could use financial assistance to get drivers licenses, vehicles, etc. to allow them to be more independent in their job/career aspirations.

Those older players are also very interested in attending trade schools and other on the job training courses to join the workforce and hit the ground running.

All of these (and many more to follow) stories are just snippets of the work The Tender Bridge is striving to do everyday. Please consider supporting by donating, liking, sharing, and telling everyone you know. If you know anyone willing to match donations, or corporate entities who would like to sponsor this story please reach out. I certainly won’t be the fastest one out there so any logos would get their fair share of time on the course.

The whole crew had a great time fishing at North Point State Park today. We fished all morning and then took advantage o...
06/29/2024

The whole crew had a great time fishing at North Point State Park today. We fished all morning and then took advantage of the nearby beach when the sun started to heat up.

Special thanks to Edgemere Bait and Tackle for generously donating all of the bait and equipment to make the day happen. Moments like these only happen with support like this and we greatly appreciate it.

Practice in the bubble or out? |
03/04/2024

Practice in the bubble or out? |

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8711 Eddington Road
Baltimore, MD
21234

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