Twenty youth have just received the 'hero' treatment in a unique and successful partnership between the school district, regional district and the Hockey Education Reaching Out Society (HEROS).
HEROS is a non-profit organization with its premise to use the game of hockey as a catalyst to attract youth 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. The program has chapters across the country including Vancouver and Toronto.
Sunshine Coast youth, ranging in age from nine to 11, from Kinnikinnick, Sechelt, Cedar Grove, Gibsons and Langdale elementary schools, wrapped up their HEROS journey on Friday, March 5.
For the past 23 weeks, the youth have been introduced to the positives of sport, team building and relationships, making them all the more stronger for it, according to HEROS Canada executive director Norm Flynn who brought the program to the Coast for the first time this year.
"It was just great. I've seen incredible improvement in the athleticism, skating and shooting, and I've noticed, as I really knew that I would, a huge improvement in behaviour," said Flynn. "We're talking about personal behaviour and team behaviour where the kids, for instance, no longer really rely on us to help them. They're now going to kids who they didn't know before.
"That's the whole goal of the program, creating a sense of community and creating friendships."
Sponsors for the program included the Sun-shine Coast Regional District, School District No. 46, TELUS, CIBC and the National Hockey League Players Association's Goals and Dreams fund which provided all the hockey equipment for each player for free.
SD46 assistant superintendent Tom Hierck said the school district is very proud of what the program has accomplished and looks forward to continuing the program for many years to come.
"It's just been a fabulous program and a wonderful opportunity. It's made a significant difference in the lives of all the participants," said Hierck.
Flynn said one of the main keys to the program's first-year success has been the support from the principals and teachers. Flynn also made mention of the seven youth mentors from Elphinstone Secondary School who also played a big part.
"This [Sunshine Coast program] has exceeded my expectations because of the involvement of the schools and the additions of the mentors from Elphi," Flynn said. "It was a huge learning process for them. They want to help out, but sometimes they don't know how to help out, so it's up to us to teach them how to teach."
Flynn said even though the program has come to the end for this year, the support for the kids will remain.
"We're hoping to get the kids together at least once a month here at the arena and that will lead us into June," he said. "We might invite a few of the kids over to our summer camp in Vancouver in the first week in July if they have a place to stay and then we ramp it up again in September. We want the same kids to come back and we certainly want to involve more. Our goal is to get 30 kids on the ice.
"It takes a long time to create a bond with a friend, so we hope this is just the first step. The first year we've planted the seed. Now we're just going to add water to it and watch it grow."
