Rotarians gather lots of hockey equipment to send north

December 22, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Bill Rea
Palgrave Rotarians were looking for hockey equipment, and they got it; lots of it.
The Rotary Club of Palgrave joined forces again this year with Rotarians in Etobicoke to collect gently used hockey equipment to send to First Nations young people in remote northern Ontario communities.
They filled the ground floor of a Palgrave area barn, and it has been shipped to a warehouse in Mississauga for sorting. Volunteers were on hand Saturday to load the truck.
“There are still people coming in this morning dropping stuff off,” observed Rotarian Bernie Rochon, owner of the barn where the equipment was gathered. He pointed out there were even several complete sets of team jerseys and socks.
Rotarian Susan Hicks they will be sending equipment to two schools receiving it last year; John C. Yesno in Fort Hope and Migizi Miigwanan in Long Lake, Ontario. She added the plan is to send equipment to three more schools in the same vicinity so they can organize tournaments.
There’s no doubt the equipment is appreciated.
Migizi Miigwanan Secondary School Principal Aaron Hobbs said the equipment has been seeing a lot of use. He also said its availability has been a factor in some of them keeping up their attendance in school.
“Many of our students have told us that the time that we spend playing hockey together is a time when they can relax, have fun and ‘feel healthier,’” he wrote. “Our hockey program has been a great success thus far and we anticipate that this will continue to be a big part of our extracurricular and healthy living activities in the coming months and years.”
Hicks expressed her thanks to the community.
“It’s like amazing what we’ve got here,” she declared. “It’s really going to benefit the children up there.”