More HEROS are emerging in our community thanks in a big way to an innovative mentorship grassroots youth hockey program.
Now in year three, the hockey HEROS program has 32 boys and girls taking to the ice at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre every Thursday from now until March.
Hockey Education Reaching Out Society (HEROS) is a non-profit organization; its premise is to use the game of hockey as a catalyst to attract young people to a program offering support for education, self-esteem building and life-skills training.
The program focuses on boys and girls of diverse ethnicity from economically challenged neighbourhoods and is conducted in an environment of fun and safety where each child is considered to be a "hero."
Executive director Norm Flynn said, through the three years on the Coast, the program has worked with more than 100 kids.
"We have a long list of kids who are lining up for the program, so the Sunshine Coast continues to embrace this program with open arms," said Flynn. "I'm finding that in year three and four in each city, the kids who started with us in year one are starting to shine. We've brought in a couple of new kids this year to the Sunshine Coast program, and it's incredible to see the kids who were here in year one helping out the new kids. They are really maturing in a great way."
Flynn said the Coast program has a 45 per cent return rate, which is very good for a program of this size.
"We have four of the kids in organized hockey this year and that would never have happened without this program," he said. "We had a waiting list for our summer hockey camp, where we introduced hockey to kids who otherwise could not have afforded to play. They came out once a day for an hour the whole week in August and I think it just created more of a stir.
"Things don't happen overnight. We have kids in our Vancouver program who are now in university and are now coaching, and they have been with us for 13 years."
HEROS currently has 11 chapters in seven cities in Canada (Sunshine Coast, Vancouver, two programs in Calgary, Edmonton, two programs in Winnipeg, three programs in Toronto and one in Montreal). The program also celebrated its fourth year in Belfast, Ireland this summer.
"We're looking to expand that program next year, but our focus continues to be with our programs here in Canada," Flynn added. "My focus here on the Sunshine Coast is to get more kids involved and continue to grow the program."
When asked if he envisioned when he started the program how successful it would be some 13 years later, Flynn said "one step at a time."
"Did I envision that we would have a tutoring program, a food program, a scholarship program - absolutely not," he said. "It was all hockey centric. It was to get the kids off the street. It was to give them an opportunity to play a game that is unaffordable to a lot of people, and the more people we bring into the fold volunteer wise (we have 167 volunteers in Canada) everyone comes with different ideas and we receive and listen to ideas. I think with the success of any kind or program, you have to have adaptability. You have to adapt and bring new things in because things change constantly.
"Our main focus is still working with the kids on the ice, but that just seems to be a fraction of what we do with our kids across Canada."
And sponsorship and volunteer support continues to be a catalyst for the programs' success.
"With the help of TELUS, we've been able to work with more kids in more communities. We're announcing at the NHL All-Star game in Ottawa next year, the opening of our Ottawa chapter. We're going to have some kids come down from Montreal who will be a part of the festivities," Flynn said. "But again, without the help from generous sponsors that we have whether it's CIBC, TELUS, the NHLPA Goals and Dreams Fund, the NHL Hockey is for Everyone Program - the list goes on - without that help these kids would not have this opportunity.
"Volunteers are so key to the program. Our volunteers are tremendous. We have a 95 per cent retention, so the kids recognize that and make a lasting bond with these volunteers who are their mentors both here on the ice and throughout the community. It's just not about the HERO behaviour they exhibit on the ice. I want the kids to take that HERO behaviour with them to school, to their family, and I want them to exhibit HERO behaviour in the community."
