By Bryan Eneas

RCMP delivers donated hockey gear to northern communities

Nov 7, 2017 | 8:12 PM

Young northerners in four communities were on the receiving end of a giant donation.

Members of the RCMP from across Saskatchewan delivered between $40,000 to $50,000 worth of hockey gear to Onion Lake, Dillon, Pelican Narrows and Sandy Bay.

The donation consisted of 38 pairs of skates, six pairs of goalie skates, 39 hockey pants, 324 socks, 10 complete sets of goalie pads along with sticks, 214 jerseys along with sticks, water bottles and other assorted hockey gear.

Cpl. Jason St. Pierre and his dad Ron drove from the southeastern corner of Saskatchewan with a trailer of hockey sticks, pads and skates in tow. The equipment was donated by community members from Assiniboia and the surrounding area, where Jason is posted.

“We had Assiniboia Minor Hockey donate over 200 jerseys and some goalie equipment,” Jason said.

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Jason is humble about his work according to Ron.

“It’s his baby. He does all the work, and it’s a lot of work,” he said. “As a dad, I’m really proud he’s doing these kinds of things.”

Ron explained it took a team of six to eight people to load the 16 foot trailer after three hours of sorting through equipment.

This wasn’t Jason’s first time organizing such a donation. A challenge was issued seven years ago by then Insp. Scott Kolody, who’s now a commanding officer of Manitoba RCMP, who asked members to collect hockey skates for youth.

Jason said the donation efforts have gotten bigger every year. This year’s collection was the largest yet.

“I’ve always been involved in the communities that I’ve policed in, I think just knowing the people, and my kids played hockey, it just made it easier to donate that equipment,” Jason said. “I was fortunate enough when I started it in Gimli [Manitoba], I was fortunate enough to see where it went.”

Jason decided to make donations in the northern regions this year after reaching out to RCMP headquarters in Regina. He was put in touch with detachment commanders in the north, who eventually identified Pelican Narrows as a community which would benefit from the equipment.

Jason said the most rewarding part of the experience was seeing the kids faces when he and his dad dropped the equipment off.

“There’s a lot of kids saying they want to be goalie, they want to be defensemen and now they’ve got equipment and they can go play,” Jason said. “That’s why I wanted to bring it myself, so you can see some of the satisfaction from the kids up north.”

Sgt. Conrad Logan, the detachment commander in Sandy Bay, echoed the St. Pierres’ sentiments and said the equipment benefits the community in many ways. He thought the hockey equipment gives youth an option for activities to keep them from getting into trouble. For those already playing hockey in organized leagues in the community, the gear is a boost to those who may need new pads.

“I’m a small town farm kid… and I don’t have kids myself, but I know the amount of money, the amount of driving we did when we were kids,” Logan said. “It’s a big commitment for a family, and the cost… especially up here, we have a high rate of unemployment, so anything to offset those costs for those families that are up here is huge.”

Myrtle Ballantyne, the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation councillor for Pelican Narrows, said the youth are already sharing lots of equipment among themselves. The most recent donation has made it possible for even more kids to play.

She said youth can start putting the gear to good use.

“Our artificial ice will be ready by Wednesday,” Ballantyne said. “As soon as the little ponds froze up, they started making their own little rinks.”

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas