MARQUETTE — Area hockey fans are in for a treat tonight as the 41st annual Pigs-N-Heat hockey game takes place at the Lakeview Arena in Marquette at 6:45 p.m.

The annual event sees the area police officers taking on members of local fire departments in a charity hockey game to support the Fire Relief Fund, which assists families who have been displaced by a fire.

“This year for the game we are going to be starting a new tradition with a fill the boot competition,” said Game Day Coordinator Heidy Pelkola. “This will be fire vs police, and will correlate with our 50/50 raffle. The winners of the fill the boot will receive a traveling trophy which will be on display at either Marquette City Police, or Marquette City Fire. We will also have the newly formed Marquette County Firefighters Honor Guard in attendance during the opening ceremonies, and a couple members that are available to answer questions about the organization and the fire service throughout the game.”

Tickets for the game start at $1 and are available for purchase at the door.

“There is an immense amount of volunteer work that goes into making this event a reality,” Pelkola said. “We started meeting in October to brainstorm ideas for this year’s game, and kept regularly scheduling meetings to keep adding more and more into the event. All of the volunteer work is done by local firefighters and law enforcement from start to finish.”

This event is the biggest fundraiser for the Fire Relief Fund, and has helped innumerable families with hotel stays, monetary donations and other types of support after facing a tragedy.

“Personally speaking, this organization will always be important to me not only because I am on the Pigs-N-Heat board, but also as a firefighter in the county who has unfortunately seen families lose their homes to a fire,” said Pelkola.