Okotoks Minor Hockey is hoping to have a charitable finish to a challenging season.
Faced with the constant uncertainty of its season on pause, cancelled and then given a sliver of hope amid new eased restrictions allowing limited practices, the OMHA is planning to give its teams one more reason to feel connected for a good cause.
“It’s tough times out there for a lot of the community who is suffering because of this,” said OMHA president Geoff Stewart. “A lot of lost jobs, a lot of people not making the revenue and looking for money back. So what can we do to give these kids a positive approach for the end of this year and maybe do something where they feel good that they’ve given back?”
With that in mind, the OMHA has launched a one-day drop off for people to donate items for the less fortunate in support of the Okotoks Food Bank, Okotoks Youth Clothing Exchange as well as for basic need kits for youth initiatives, such as toiletries.
“Some of the things are food, clothing for teens that need clothing,” Stewart said. “We’re kind of looking at that same age group demographic, there are kids out there, you’d be surprised how many, need just toiletries and those kind of things.”
The drop-off will be held Feb. 27 with stations set up at the Okotoks Recreation Centre parking lot.
Amy Snyder, who heads up the OMHA’s mental wellness, helped put the project together after having a similar initiative go through in the past with Foothills Minor Hockey.
“We were ready to do it in the fall, just the toiletry drive and then, of course everything went south and we weren’t able to do that,” Snyder said. “Because I’m not backed by an agency other than the Foothills Children’s Wellness Network, I don’t have funds for these kinds of things. So I brought this idea up to Geoff the other day, why not throw a positive spin on trying to get some of these teams together.”
In a past role with Big Brothers Big Sisters working in the school system, Snyder picked up on the need for hygiene and toiletry products as well as clothing among the teenager population.
“Because I have been doing some Zoom sessions with a couple hockey teams just around mental health and the benefits of volunteerism and what that can do and the teams are pretty excited about that,” Snyder added. “I just brought it up to Geoff and said is this something you guys would be interested in doing? It’s a way to get the teams back together and doing something for the community.
“He of course was on board with it and thought it would be a great idea.”
In her role with OMHA, Snyder said her primary goal is to increase the awareness around the importance of mental health and getting the message that help is there within the association.
“It’s not about trying to diagnose or seek out problems in kids,” she said. “It’s more about trying to create that awareness that your mental health is just as important as your physical health and if your mental health is struggling you’re not going to be able to perform to the best of your ability in sports.”
Snyder said she hopes this project helps raise the profile of the mental wellness piece.
“I think it’s a win-win in a lot of different avenues and that little victory at the end of the year,” Stewart said. “As we get going here, we’re going to try and get table set up to drop it off so we can sort it, put it into some cube vans or trailers or whatever we have and I’ve got my warehouse here that we can just store it in for the time being.
“And just slowly work towards collecting as much as we can in one day.”
For more information go to okotokshockey.com.
Curveball from the Province
In a surprise announcement on Feb. 6, the Province added limited school and minor sport training for groups of 10 or less in team sports, dance and gymnastics classes to Step 1 of the staged re-opening which took effect Feb. 8.
The announcement came two days after Hockey Alberta announced its 2020-21 seasons have concluded with some hopes for limited return to practice only in future steps of the Path Forward.
The new measures allow for team based activities only where training goes beyond what one-on-one could offer, and includes physical distancing measures both indoor and outdoor while coaches must be masked at all times.
Stewart said the OMHA is meeting on Feb. 10 to figure out its next steps and to determine if returning to limited practices is feasible.
“It’s really a curveball that AHS gave us,” he said. “Because on Thursday they were in a meeting with us in Hockey Alberta and said ‘no, it’s probably not moving.’ They talked about the refunds we would get from Hockey Alberta and Hockey Canada and the season was over and they’ve cancelled all the leagues and everything else so game play wouldn’t get back together.
“It’s a difficult time for us to see if we could salvage a bit.”
Also last week, Hockey Canada announced it has cancelled all of its spring championships including the Centennial Cup Jr. A championship, Allan Cup national Senior championship as well as the U18 AAA boys and girls championships, the Telus and Esso Cup.
The Centennial Cup, which was slated to be held in Penticton, has now been cancelled in consecutive years. Next year's event is scheduled to be held in Estevan, Saskatchewan.
"We believe the decision to cancel our spring 2021 national championships is the safest decision given the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic at a local level, as well as the uncertainty around each region being able to compete for a national championship," Hockey Canada said in its release.
