Hockey heros: North End idea going nationwide

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Evander Kane expects to become more involved in Manitoba HEROS program.

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Norm Flynn (right) got the idea for HEROS from his upbringing in Winnipeg's North End. The program now has chapters across the country. (DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

VANCOUVER -- This holiday season, Norm Flynn attended 11 parties in eight cities across Canada.

If things go according to plan, he will have a chance to travel to even more in 2013.

Flynn is the founder and executive director of Vancouver-based Hockey Education Reaching Out Society, more commonly known as HEROS. Operated mainly by volunteers, the group's program assists youngsters in some of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods.

The parties, which included dinner and gifts for program participants and their families and donations to community groups, were extensions of regular on-ice and off-ice sessions that include hockey instruction and off-ice counselling.

Since Flynn started HEROS in 1999, it has expanded from 13 youngsters from Vancouver's notoriously poor Downtown Eastside to more than 450 -- and counting -- per year in communities ranging from Calgary to Toronto and points in between, but not Saskatchewan or the Maritimes -- yet.

"We're researching a couple of new locations (for HEROS chapters) for 2013," said Flynn.

Since its inception, HEROS has helped more than 3,400 boys and girls. For every kid that is in the program, there are two or three times that many who can't get in because of limits on numbers that schools select, said Flynn. HEROS also attempts to control expansion in order to grow properly.

Flynn, 51, a former junior and university player, forged the idea for HEROS based on his own upbringing in Winnipeg's North End. As a youth, he fought frequently in his crime-laden neighbourhood before getting involved in hockey.

But Flynn, who now lives in Vancouver, did not like what became of some friends. Some joined gangs and were killed in shootings.

The former Colgate sales executive started HEROS as a volunteer while also investing some of his own money, modelling it after New York City's successful Hockey in Harlem project. In 2006, he gave up his business career to devote himself full-time to HEROS.

In addition to Vancouver, HEROS chapters operate on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast as well as in Calgary (two), Edmonton, Winnipeg (two), Toronto (two), Montreal, and Ottawa, which started up this year. Participants are chosen by schools in qualifying neighbourhoods.

Participants include native Canadians and immigrants, many of whom have struggled in school and are dealing with attention deficit disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome and other health issues. In addition to being bullied, some are trying to amend their bullying ways. Several early program participants are now involved as mentors in the group led by 100 volunteers.

Current and past NHLers have gone on the ice with the kids. Winnipeg Jets winger Evander Kane has participated in a HEROS summer session in his hometown of Vancouver and is expected to become more active in the Manitoba capital with HEROS once the NHL lockout ends.

HEROS also provides post-secondary scholarships for participants to help further their education. This year, 10 scholarships have been handed out, but the number is slated to increase to approximately 36 over the next two years and 50 within five years.

Nick Wilson, 24, who has been involved with HEROS for about 11 years, said the program provided him with opportunities that he would never have had otherwise. Wilson, now a HEROS mentor, grew up on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where he still resides.

With financial and other help from HEROS, he was able to play minor hockey, get through college criminology studies and obtain employment as a recreational leader with an Aboriginal centre also located on the Downtown Eastside.

Wilson, who was raised by a single mother and is of partial Aboriginal descent, is going through the Vancouver Police Department's interview process and hopes to enter the police academy in the spring.

"It's a great stepping stone for me in my career," Wilson said of HEROs. "It gives (disadvantaged kids) the opportunity to experience a lot more than they possibly could."

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 28, 2012 C2