Month: April 2022

They came to play a game they love and now they can’t return to the country they love.

When Marc McLaughlin from Pittsburgh, PA. took in two Ukrainian boys from Lviv, he had no idea that the Russian invasion of the Ukraine would extend their stay.

Vlad and Vitally have been living with Marc, his wife and their four other children since August 2021, when they arrived to further their hockey journeys.

McLaughlin says that the plan was for the boys to return to Ukraine in March after their Mid Tournament and finish school remotely but their school said that this wasn’t possible due to the evolving COVID laws. Two weeks later, the war between Russia and Ukraine started, resulting in the boys not being able to return home regardless.

Both Vitally and Vlad said that they miss their family back home but hope to remain in America with a little help. 

The McLaughlin family started a Go Fund Me program in hopes to raise money to help support the boys through this tough time and help them stay in Pittsburgh.

“There’s absolutely no problem with the school, except for the price, and even with the discount, It’s about $15,000 for both kids,” McLaughlin  said. “Each boys’ parents roughly spent $20,000 per kid last year to have them. So, we’re hoping to raise around that much. Their parents aren’t working. From what I understand, if the war ended today — which is highly unlikely — It would probably still take six months to a year for them to financially recover. 

“I bought them sticks, tons of food. I don’t mind. I’ll do anything I can, however, I have a limit because I have my own kid playing on the same team. I have a 11-year-old who plays. I also have an eight-year-old daughter and a three-year-old boy. So, I have two kids plus four kids playing hockey, basically.”

Vitally and Vlad only heard about the opportunity to study and play hockey in America from a coach a year before leaving their home. Both said that it was exciting to come to America, but it was also difficult.

“The first time it was so hard because I didn’t know English. I didn’t know people, like, I didn’t know, like everything here. But right now, I feel like so much better,” said Vitally.

McLaughlin says that both boys are “extremely” good players and that in America, Vitally had 45 goals in one season as a defenseman and in Ukraine he had over 300 in a season. 

“In Ukraine, hockey is not the best sport. The best sport in Ukraine. Is soccer, like just literally everybody plays,” says Vitally. ““Here we have like more teams, we have better players than in Ukraine.”

“They’re part of the family now, and they’ve always been like super comfortable,” said McLaughlin, who added he is in contact with the boys’ parents every day.

“I just promised them that I’ll take care of them to the best of my ability. And that’s all I can do.”

To help support the boys and the McLaughlin family you can donate to the Go Fund Me page.

Hockey Cares goes beyond just hockey.

The True North Aid program was created in 2017 with the purpose of connecting youth through the love of hockey.

The program is an exchange between Oakville and Attawapiskat bantam hockey teams. Players from Attawapiskat travel to Oakville in July and youth from Oakville will fly up to Attawapiskat in November to learn about and experience a new culture and play hockey.

The program centres around players ages 13-15 and is designed so all players realize the importance of completing high school. Only four out of 10 Indigenous youth finish high school, compared to nine out of 10 non-Indigenous youth.

The program’s intent is to introduce Indigenous youth to the opportunities available to them in the Canadian ‘south’ so they can see the possibilities. Many of the players live in very remote areas and may never even see the world outside of their community.

The Hockey Cares Project also works with colleges and universities to not only show Indigenous youth the opportunities available to them, but also to introduce existing support networks provided by Indigenous people living in places like Oakville and the Greater Toronto area.

Founder Sue Heddle said that the program helps expose the Attawapiskat kids to post-secondary education opportunities.

“If they want to do post-secondary, there’s nothing near Attawapiskat, so they must leave, and when you live in a community of 1,700 people and you have to leave, it’s very stressful,” Heddle said. “We’re trying to form a backbone of support for them through meeting mentors, indigenous mentors from here, and families from here that can, can help them if they want to do post-secondary this year.”

But it is not just the players from Attawapiskat who benefit from the exchange.

“It’s an eye-opener for Oakville kids to go up north and to experience the beauty of James Bay and the stars,” Heddle said. “It is also an experience living where you can’t just get the water from the tap.

“Also there’s the crisis of teen suicide up there. So, by making friendships, these kids can talk to one another.”

Jonathan and Leah from Oakville are past participants in the Hockey Care program. The players shared what it was like to be a part of the exchange.

“Until you go up and see a First Nations reserve, it doesn’t really click with you until you’ve experienced some of the conditions that they experienced, especially not having access to (clean drinking) water,” Jonathan said. “I really enjoyed making friendships and learning culture. But I think for me, what I took out of it was kind of the concept of privilege.”

“I thought it was really eye-opening for me to be able to see the privilege that I have and gain a new sense of like self-awareness. It makes me want to continue working with the program and further education on indigenous culture,” Leah said.

Attawapiskat’s Sabett Hookiman, who is also a past participant of the program, said that the highlight of the trip for her was meeting new friends at the group introduction barbeque and at the rink.

Jonathan said that he would recommend the program to anyone.

“I think anyone with interest in hockey, you must look into the program,” he said. “You should a hundred percent do it. You don’t realize how much it means until you do it”

“I agree, I wasn’t sure about the program  before I went,” Leah said.  “As you go through the program — especially when they came here — I thought it was really, cool. It was  one of the highlights of my summer. Then I returned the next year and I had looked forward to it like the whole year, because it was a great experience.”

Heddle says that working for CBC for 23 years and seeing all the disasters happening around the world, she started to notice that there are people in “our own backyards” who have inadequate housing or access to clean drinking water. She decided this is something that Canadians should be aware and she created Hockey Cares to shine a spotlight on the issues..

Heddle said that many of the kids that have been through the program remain in touch with each other via social media.

“We’d love to hear from them, and we will do our best to pair them with another community,” Heddle said. “This year we’re going to have someone from Calgary and someone from the neighboring community to Attawapiskat, coming to shadow so they can see how the program runs,” Heddle said.

Many youths have benefited from this program according to Heddle.

“The interesting thing is how it’s taken their life in a turn,” she said. “Some of them may have thought they were going down one path for their education and then suddenly, they’re saying, no, I’m really interested in indigenous studies, or I’m interested in environmental studies because I want to be able to help with the water.

“1It’s interesting how it’s changed their life, change their direction or their paths.”

It has certainly changed life for Heddle. She remains in contact with some kids from the program.

“I’m touched when kids reach out to me, they call me Mama Sue up there,” she said. “They reach out to me if they have a problem. I had one girl come out to me and didn’t know how to tell her parents. And you know, I felt honored that they trust me enough to come to me first with their problems.”

Anyone who is interested in learning more about the program or how they can help can visit the Hockey Cares website.

Hockey Cares goes beyond just hockey.

True North Aid was created in 2017 with the purpose of connecting youth through the love of hockey.

The program is an exchange between Oakville and Attawapiskat bantam hockey teams. Players from Attawapiskat travel to Oakville in July and youth from Oakville will fly up to Attawapiskat in November to learn about and experience a new culture and play hockey.

Founder Sue Heddle said that the program helps expose the Attawapiskat kids post-secondary education opportunities.

“If they want to do post-secondary, there’s nothing near Attawapiskat, so they must leave, and when you live in a community of 1,700 people and you have to leave, it’s very stressful,” Heddle said. “We’re trying to form a backbone of support for them through meeting mentors, indigenous mentors from here, and families from here that can, can help them if they want to do post-secondary this year.”

But it is not just the players from Attawapiskat who benefit from the exchange.

“It’s an eye-opener for Oakville kids to go up north and to experience the beauty of James Bay and the stars,” Heddle said. “It is also an experience living where you can’t just get the water from the tap.

“Also there’s the crisis of teen suicide up there. So, by making friendships, these kids can talk to one another.”

Jonathan and Leah from Oakville are past participants in the Hockey Care program. They shared what it was like to be a part of the exchange.

“Until you go up and see a First Nations reserve, it doesn’t really click with you until you’ve experienced some of the conditions that they experienced, especially not having access to (clean drinking) water,” Jonathan said. “I really enjoyed making friendships and learning culture. But I think for me, what I took out of it was kind of the concept of privilege.”

“I thought it was really eye-opening for me to be able to see the privilege that I have and gain a new sense of like self-awareness. It makes me want to continue working with the program and further education on indigenous culture,” Leah said.

Attawapiskat’s Sabett Hookiman, who is also a past participant of the program, said that the highlight of the trip for her was meeting new friends at the group introduction barbeque and at the rink.

Jonathan said that he would recommend the program to anyone.

“I think anyone with interest in hockey, you must look into the program,” he said. “You should a hundred percent do it. You don’t realize how much it means until you do it”

“I agree, I wasn’t sure about the program  before I went,” Leah said.  “As you go through the program — especially when they came here — I thought it was really, cool. It was  one of the highlights of my summer. Then I returned the next year and I had looked forward to it like the whole year, because it was a great experience.”

Heddle says that working for CBC for 23 years and seeing all the disasters happening around the world, she started to notice that there are people in “our own backyards” who have inadequate housing or access to clean drinking water. She decided this is something that Canadians should be aware and she created Hockey Cares to shine a spotlight on the issues..

Heddle said that many of the kids that have been through the program remain in touch with each other via social media.

“We’d love to hear from them, and we will do our best to pair them with another community,” Heddle said. “This year we’re going to have someone from Calgary and someone from the neighboring community to Attawapiskat, coming to shadow so they can see how the program runs,” Heddle said.

Many youths have benefited from this program according to Heddle.

“The interesting thing is how it’s taken their life in a turn,” she said. “Some of them may have thought they were going down one path for their education and then suddenly, they’re saying, no, I’m really interested in indigenous studies, or I’m interested in environmental studies because I want to be able to help with the water.

“1It’s interesting how it’s changed their life, change their direction or their paths.”

It has certainly changed life for Heddle. She remains in contact with some kids from the program.

“I’m touched when kids reach out to me, they call me Mama Sue up there,” she said. “They reach out to me if they have a problem. I had one girl come out to me and didn’t know how to tell her parents. And you know, I felt honored that they trust me enough to come to me first with their problems.”

Anyone who is interested in learning more about the program or how they can help can visit the Hockey Cares website.

When Hockey Eastern Ontario (HEO) launched the green armband initiative in January 2020, its goal was to help shield young on-ice officials from verbal abuse hurled from the crowd and the benches.

The initiative states that all officials under the age of 18-years-old will wear a green armband that will indicate that they are minors.

In the HEO, there are officials as young as 14 years old and around 300 officials calling games that are minors. 

According to John Reid, HEO Referee-in-Chief, the idea came from a basketball team in Montreal.

“Umpires were kind of stuck behind the plate and it seems that group in Montreal have decided to do this green armband initiative to get parents and coaches to stop yelling at the minors,” said Reid.

“And one of the things was the umpiring is behind the plate, you can’t go anywhere.

“Whereas in hockey, you can skate to the other side of the rink, and you can move up and down the ice surface and you can kind of get away from things … when you’re behind the plate you are kind of stuck about people yelling at you.”

The initiative was brought in by the HEO as COVID restrictions lifted and the hockey season started up again. Reid says that it has been “tremendously” successful.

The green armbands do not affect the players on the ice as they are under the Canada Maltreatment rules, so it is simply just to benefit the officials under the age of 18 and could affect the coaches and parents. 

Parents would simply be asked to leave the rink if found yelling or mistreating an official that is wearing the green armband.

For coaching staff if they are found yelling at a young official their penalty will be doubled.

According to Reid there are posters indicating this and the rules about the initiative in all arenas in the HEO, so parents and coaches are aware of these rules

“The reality is they’ve really been given a heads up and a wakeup call,” said Reid.

Reid said it was very easy to get this initiative started and the HEO provided them with the funds to purchase the armbands.

“Our bands cost $6 each. They sent us off with a $2,000 fund to go ahead and purchase the armbands and then we distributed them through our 10 different district Referee in Chiefs,” said Reid.

Reid said there are officials as young as 14 refereeing AAA, under 18 hockey or junior hockey and the program has been very beneficial to them, even at such a high level. Not all the young officials wanted to wear the band.

“I think there’s one official in junior that wasn’t certain about wanting to wear the green armband, but at that point when they’re 17 and they’re officiating that high level, my argument back to them is you should be proud about wearing the green armband and being able to showcase yourself,” said Reid

The green armband initiative is starting to “catch” on according to Reid. He said there has been inquiries from Manitoba, BC, Alberta and Texas.

“I’m saying this is not just a harassment program that would be for hockey, but it to be incorporated into any sport,” said Reid.