By Nadia Fezzani

More than 60 children from Ontario had the chance to spend six activity-filled days with some NHL players at a beautiful hockey camp, complete with gifts of free hockey equipment, free meals and free accommodation. These boys and girls, aged eight to 16, were selected by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada to experience hockey at the Roger Neilson's Hockey Camp in Lindsay, Ontario, from June 30 to July 6, 2002 through the Minor Hockey Foundation Ontario's Let's Learn Hockey Program.

Rebecca Young, assistant-director of marketing at Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Canada, explains that the children were selected by their desire to play hockey combined with a financial need. She also mentioned that the benefits of this program go beyond the hockey experience.

“The benefits to the children are many. A big one is that many of their peers get to play hockey and unfortunately, the economic reality for some of the children in our program is such that they cannot participate. This opportunity will enhance their self-esteem and self-confidence by giving them a chance to be equals.”

Some organizations worked hard to make this opportunity possible. The Minor Hockey Foundation Ontario (MHF) developed the idea of the “Let's Learn Hockey Program” in 1999. The program involves the selection of players, funding a hockey camp for them, as well as paying for the children's local house league hockey registration for the upcoming season. It has taken three years to raise funds for this program and the results were very rewarding.

The MHF created this program to give back to minor hockey league. All funding come directly from corporate and personal donations, as well as fundraising campaigns. POST Shreddies Cereal and Old Navy were proud supporters of this program. This program was able to help 60 children this year, and has a goal of helping 100 children next year by raising $100,000 through corporate donations. As of today, the foundation has risen over $120,000 in four years to give to minor hockey players in Ontario .

“It's a great time to be involved with minor hockey,” said Laura Wiese, associate product manager, POST Cereals. “The enthusiasm generated by Canada 's gold medal wins is best reflected by the boys and girls in minor hockey leagues across Canada . POST Shreddies Cereal is honoured to help support them in their pursuit of their own hockey dreams.”

But this project was more than just fundraising and goals; the MHF is composed of volunteers and staff members who gave of their own time for these children.

Kevin Boston, coordinator of the “Let's Learn Hockey program”, wanted himself and the staff to be directly involved in the realization of this busy day.

“It was a rewarding experience to see most of these children who could never have done this without our help,” Boston says, “I felt the day was absolutely fantastic!”

Boston was only one of the many people who helped out. Jonathan Geddes, an Ontario Minor Hockey Association Trainer, volunteered his time and experience to the program. Geddes wanted to help children because of a chance he was given in the past, where someone had done the same for him.

“The best part was helping the children with the equipment and seeing the excitement in their eyes. I hope they have an enjoyable experience during their stay at camp, continue on with hockey afterwards, and have fun the entire time.”

The MHF also worked with the NHL Players Association Goals & Dreams Fund who donated the hockey equipment to the underprivileged ones. Goals & Dreams was involved in this project through their affiliation with the Hockey Life Foundation, which outfits Canadian children with hockey equipment through the NHLPA Goals and Dreams Fund.

Devin Smith, Program Manager at the NHLPA, mentions that, “Since November 1999, the NHLPA members, (players in the NHL), have donated close to $8 million to grassroots hockey programs around the world.” The funds are made available for children living in many countries, such as Canada , United States , Australia , Costa Rica , Czech Republic , Finland , Kazakhstan , Romania , Russia , Slovakia , and Sweden .

The committee of the NHL Players Association Goals & Dreams Fund is composed of several NHL personalities. These include Mike Gartner as Chairman, Ron MacLean, John Davidson, and Paul Henderson as Advisory Board members, as well as current active players; Mats Sundin, Adam Graves, Shjon Podein, Jyrki Lumme, Pavel Bure and Igor Larionov.

But the most popular NHL personality at the camp was Roger Neilson, founder and operator of the camp, who is also the assistant coach of the Ottawa Senators. The camp in Lindsay is the most recent of Neilson's camps. While the Lindsay camp has been running for six years, some of Neilson's other camp locations have educated over 20,000 campers and for 26 years have attracted hockey players from several countries, including U.S.A., France, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Spain, Ecuador and Brazil. This was 10 years after Neilson's coaching career started.

Neilson is not just anyone in the hockey field; he was recently elected to be a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Neilson has worked as a coach, assistant-coach or video-analyst for the Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues and currently for the Ottawa Senators, after starting as a coach for the OHL Peterborough Petes during the 1966-67 season.

Of course Neilson would love to see some of his campers playing in the NHL some day, having been a coach in the hockey world for more than 36 years, but the main reasons why he started this non-profit organization are ones of a social nature.

“With the camp, we're hoping the (children) get to improve their hockey skills, kids will make new friends, have a good time here and they'll learn good things about working as a team, which will help them out later on in life.”

His goal was reached; the children seemed to be having a good time. The joy of the little ones was obvious, especially while receiving their hockey equipment and spending the day playing all kinds of sports.

Enjoying the day with his new teammates, Tyler Berry of Fergus, expressed his happiness.

“I feel really good that we got new stuff and we got to play all kinds of sports like volleyball, beach ball, mini golf, and hockey. Hockey is my favorite sport to play though.”

Since the day starts at 7 a.m. and ends around 9:30 p.m., children spend much of their time improving their speed, power, agility and knowledge of hockey, but there is even more to it than just hockey, explains Jim Faulkner, head of the off-ice recreation program.

“When they're off the ice, we run everything from field classes, like playing hand ball, we run team-building classes, we run what we call “rec fit classes” where they can play mini-golf or beach volleyball, or basketball at times.

“Then we have indoor classes where they play indoor games in the dome and then we have roller hockey or ball hockey on the outside rink as well. They're on the ice twice during the day and then the rest they're in 4 hours of (recreational) activities plus swimming.”

Faulkner also explains the reason for these numerous and diverse activities.

“We've got the (children) all day long and we couldn't have them on the ice all day. There are so many boys at the camp so we have to keep a structured program and keep them busy.”

Larry Pearson, recreation instructor and coordinator of the off-ice program, also explains that these non-hockey activities are present to get the young ones to work on other types of skills.

“The goals are basically to get the kids to understand a better idea of what it takes to be a team player rather than an individual, to have the attitude. You want to be the best at everything you can be, whatever you're working at, and look out for others.”

The experience also gives a chance to develop other skills, such as problem-solving and communication skill.

“It works a lot of the social, emotional aspect, so that's a personal growth that way.”

Personal growth can be great motivation, especially with the Friday night awards ceremonies held at the camp, where the children have the chance to receive rewards for their skills, efforts and good behavior. There are prizes for several categories, ranging from house awards to team-building, sports and activities awards.

The children not only have the chance to challenge themselves, learn sports strategies, improve their physical and psychological skills, but also to make new friends and enjoy their week at the camp.

While Rebecca Young mentions that the “ Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Canada is extremely grateful for the support of the MHF and Ontario Minor Hockey Association for their belief in the children that we serve,” the smiles on the faces of the children and parents are most rewarding for the volunteers and the organizations that took part in this event as well.

Let's hope many more children will have the chance to experience this same joy.