By MATT CHANDLER
mchandler@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1654

On the ice, Buffalo Sabres winger Patrick Kaleta is known for his bone-crushing hits. Off the ice, he is hoping to be known for HITS of a completely different variety.

The Angola native, who rose through the professional hockey ranks to take the ice for his hometown Sabres, began a charitable organization, HITS, Helping Individuals to Smile.

Kaleta, who is known for his charitable work and was named the American Hockey League Man of the Year during the 2006-07 season for his community service, is developing HITS as a way to give back to those less fortunate in the community.

While he has worked with both Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Cradle Beach Camp, Kaleta, along with a dedicated group of volunteers, has set a lofty goal for the HITS Foundation: to construct a $6 million ice arena and fieldhouse in Springville.

"I've always enjoyed being out in the community and helping people," Kaleta said, as he prepared to tee of at his foundation's second annual golf outing on Monday. "If there is anyway I can help someone, I love to do it."

The annual tournament is a cornerstone fund-raising effort as the group looks to raise the capital to construct the Springville facility, as well as to support the other endeavors close to Kaleta's heart. In only it's second year, the golf fund-raiser brought in approximately $25,000 as 138 golfers came out to support the HITS Foundation. That's up from $20,000 last year, and Kaleta said the support from the community has been exciting.

It's just been awesome," he said. "Everyone you meet on the street is so positive and wants to help out and that's pretty cool."

For his part, Kaleta said the concept of HITS was born from the desire to make a difference in the community, in particular the rural community of the Southern Tier.

"If you play in sports around the area, especially hockey, there isn't enough ice around," he said. "Though that's my expertise, we wanted to add a fieldhouse to have soccer, lacrosse and all kinds of other sports as well."

In addition to having a strong base of community support, the foundation is anchored by the Kaleta clan. Among those working on behalf of the HITS Foundation are Kaleta's mom, dad, sister, brother and uncle.

His father Tom Kaleta, traces the founding of the HITS Foundation back to his son's childhood.

"Pat had this idea of putting together a place for the underprivileged kids to be able to participate in sports and I think he saw that need because of all that my wife and I went through putting the boys through hockey," he said. "It was very expensive and he wanted to do his part for the kids in the area."

Kaleta himself, was quick to deflect credit for the foundation to his family and supporters, and gave a special nod to the Sabres current net minder.

"I've had a good leader in Ryan Miller with his foundation and going around to visit hospitals and seeing how important it is to get out in the community," he said.

His dad said the location for the facility was chosen because of the need in the community on many levels.

I grew up in Holland and my brother Mike is in Springville and what I started to see was a lot of great things going on up north with programs like Hasek's Heroes," the elder Kaleta said. "And we sort of felt like this area was being ignored and that's why we wanted to see what we could do down there to help these people."

Audrey Seeley is an attorney with Hurwitz and Fine PC. She is also a native of the Springville area and grew up seeing the same need in the community. Through a working relationship with Patrick's uncle, Mike Kaleta, she was offered, and accepted a chance to join the board of directors of the foundation.

"It is just a great group of people working to make this happen," Seeley said. "This isn't  dream or an idea. We have the plans and we intend to build this facility."

Mike Kaleta said the foundation has already secured some tenants to occupy the building and the group is hoping to have the facility open in 2012.

For most people, the idea of taking on the challenges of launching a foundation charged with constructing a multi-million dollar facility at the tender age of 25 would be a daunting one. For Kaleta, it is simply who he is.

"You aim high and set your goals high and my goal growing up was to play in the NHL," Kaleta said. "That was a pretty big goal coming from Angola, New York, but I made it and we have a lot of hard workers and supporters involved with the foundation to help make this happen too."

To learn more about the HITS Foundation, visit www.hitsfoundation.net.