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Rotary-led equipment drive prompted visit O Continued from page 38 it brings so much hope and so much joy to my community. That the Stanley Cup would come to a remote place like this, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of it,” Meekis said shortly after parading the Cup around Sandy Lake on the back of his pick-up truck, trailed by an escort of 16 flag-waving, skidoo-driving members of the Sandy Lake Canadian Rangers. While Lord Stanley’s 22-hour stay in Sandy Lake was widely celebrated as a “historic first”, Meekis pledged it most certainly won’t mark the Cup’s last long voyage to the remote flyin community nearly 1,500 kms northwest of Toronto. “It will be back up here again in 2020, but next time it will be one of our young hockey players bringing it north as a Stanley Cup champion – hopefully with the Canadiens,” the Montreal fan said with a determined grin. “To us, the Stanley Cup promotes education, it promotes discipline, and it also promotes
that you can be all you can be – and that’s something our kids need to see.” While the Cup’s arrival provided plenty of incentive to young hockey players in Sandy Lake to strive for NHL greatness, the accompanying delivery of 16 skids of gently used hockey gear collected by the Rotary Clubs of Etobicoke and Palgrave – and shipped free-of-charge courtesy Wasaya Airways and the Grimes’ brothers Etobicokebased logistics company, MGA International – brought with it the means with which to fulfill a hockey dream that, for many, would’ve otherwise been out of reach. Freight costs to communities like Sandy Lake, which are only accessible by land via ice roads for a few short weeks in the winter, drive the price of even the most basic of goods up at least threefold. In a community where even a 24-case of no-name bottled water sells for $27.79, that means the price of already-costly hockey equipment becomes prohibitively expensive for most families. “A lot of our youth want to get on the ice, but can’t afford the skates, which is sad because people here go hard for hockey – they a b s o -
lutely love it,” said Jenn Elwell, the now “super famous” teacher who arranged the hockey donation with Rotary Etobicoke’s Laura Latham after stumbling upon a story about the club’s hockey drive on Facebook. “So for me, seeing my kids walk out of the gym today with skates in their hands and big smiles on their faces just melted my heart. It was so beautiful, because I know how much it means to them.” Pittsburgh Penguins superfan Derek Monias, 13, not only walked away from the distribution event at Thomas Fiddler Memorial Elementary School last week with a hockey bag stuffed with new gear, he was also able to cross a key item off his bucket list. “I’ve always wanted to see the Stanley Cup in person and now I have. It’s every hockey player’s dream to one day achieve winning it,” he said with a shy smile. “This day, we all feel happy. The people that brought the Cup here have put a smile on everybody’s faces here in Sandy Lake and made them feel good inside.”
| Scarborough Mirror | Thursday, February 16, 2017
MISSION TO SANDY LAKE 2017
Cynthia Reason photos
Top; Hundreds of Sandy Lake First Nations residents braved the -34C weather to greet Howie Borrow, Keeper of the Stanley Cup, and of course Lord Stanley himself at the Sandy Lake air field; Above; a young hockey player gets fitted for new blades while, below, members of the Sandy Lake First Nations hockey team tried out of some their near gear donated by the Rotary Club of Etobicoke during a pick-up hockey game at the local arena.
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