Kelly Schneider putting up red and white lights on their home in Prince Albert in support of their son and Team Canada. (Carmela Schneider/Twitter)

By Ian Gustafson

Canada Pride

P.A. parents’ support for son and Team Canada goes viral

Dec 15, 2020 | 5:00 PM

Not many parents can say their child is representing Team Canada on an international stage.

But for Kelly and Carmela Schneider they may be two of the proudest parents in Prince Albert after it was announced their son Braden Schneider made the Team Canada roster in the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championship in Edmonton Dec. 25 to Jan. 5.

A social media post from Carmela went viral in Canada after she posted a picture of her husband putting up white and red Christmas lights to support their son and Team Canada.

Kelly said they’re excited for the upcoming tournament and the idea for the lights came up when they were at Canadian Tire and saw the lights there. He explained if Braden made the team, they were going to put them up.

“Braden called and he had seen what happened and all his friends were kind of teasing him and stuff,” he said. “We’ve started checking on the internet and then we realized holy cow it just started taking off. There was just about 400,000 hits on it.”

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When asked if he was excited or nervous ahead of the tournament, Kelly explained they’re just proud parents.

“He’s kind of taking a walk in his dream right now so it’s what you want for your kids right? Chase their dreams and hopefully they come true,” Kelly told paNOW.

Carmela explained she thought hanging the lights was something they needed to do to show their support.

“Hockey’s been not only Braden’s life, not only his brother’s life but it’s our whole family’s life and to have him achieve something like this is pretty exciting,” she said. “It feels like something we’ve all achieved together but I know he’s the one that put in all the work.”

She is hopeful the tournament will go ahead smoothly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All teams involved have been in the Edmonton bubble for the tournament. Carmela explained she wished they could be there to support him, but the Christmas lights is a small way of doing that.

“It’s always such a great tournament to watch whether you know somebody or not but it makes it that much more special when you know people on the team, so we’re pretty pumped about that,” she said.

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Ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12