Repaired NHL sticks lending inner-city kids an assist

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This article was published 28/07/2017 (3004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many Canadian children grow up dreaming of playing in the NHL, pretending to be their favourite player during pickup hockey games with their friends — but not many get to do it with professional, game-used sticks in their hands.

From the hands of Dustin Byfuglien and Blake Wheeler and into theirs —that’s the reality for children involved in an inner-city, non-profit sports organization that received 18 hockey sticks previously used by some of their favourite NHL players.

The sticks, broken during last year’s Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose games, were fully repaired by students at Red River College and donated Thursday to the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre (WASAC).

The sticks represent more than just a connection to professional hockey, according to former Point Douglas MLA Kevin Chief, who is a former director of the centre.

“The kids are learning how to skate and getting the sticks will allow them to learn some fundamentals,” Chief said. “But we also want to say post-secondary is for you, college is for you, university is for you. It’s getting a tap on the shoulder that says, ‘Hey, Red River College is with you.’”

The names of the sticks’ former owners are still printed on the shafts, which had the children excited as they pored over the names of players they’ve only seen on TV or at Bell MTS Place.

“When Byfuglien breaks a stick, it’s not a pretty sight,” said Paul Vogt, Red River College president.

That’s where the students in the college’s aerospace manufacturing program came in. True North Sports and Entertainment Ltd. (which owns both the NHL’s Jets and AHL’s Moose) paired up with the college, collecting busted sticks for a month and passing them along to the program.

Supervised by teachers Terry Morris and Chris Marek, college students went about repairing the sticks with composite plugs and structural adhesive.

At the end of the process, you could hardly tell the sticks had ever been broken.

When the children finally got their hands on the sticks, their excitement was visible.

“To see all the Jets sticks here, I’m really just really happy,” said 11-year-old Wyatt Langlois, who was wearing a Jets jersey.

“It’ll be one to remember,” added 10-year-old Maleyk Bighorn, already sounding like an athlete giving an interview.

Before the sticks were officially passed from the college to the achievement centre, an afternoon ball hockey game was held, with both Vogt and Chief joining in.

For Vogt, not only did it present an opportunity to help youth get engaged with sports, but also to potentially get them interested in the aerospace manufacturing program.

“To plant that seed and get people thinking that this is a possible career,” he said.

“These were repaired in our aviation program with composites that are used in the aerospace industry. Those are good jobs. Those are in-demand jobs. And we want to get people thinking about them from a very early age.”

Founded in 1999, WASAC gets Indigenous and inner-city youth involved with sports in an effort to help them develop leadership skills in a positive environment. It’s summer camp provides sport opportunities, nutrition and transportation for children from more than 70 schools across the city.

“WASAC was born from the question, ‘What if all children had access to sport?’” said Kate Doer, achievement centre co-ordinator.

“We were given the chance to answer this question, thanks in large part to incredible partnerships like this one.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca