For the second year in a row, the York Simcoe Express hockey association is holding an equipment drive to collect skates, sticks, and more for Indigenous communities.
The drive, which takes place at the Magna Centre in Newmarket on Saturday, Sept. 17 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., is in partnership with Indigenous Hockey Equipment Drive. The organization was started by Richmond Hill resident Graham McWaters when he met Rose McKenzie at a hockey tournament in Midland seven or eight years ago.
McKenzie, who is from the Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island in Ontario, was managing some hockey teams from the community who were wanting to go to the Little Native Hockey League (LNHL) tournament typically held over March break every year.
"I was getting messages every single day from kids saying that they wanted to come to hockey, could they come and join? And I would ask them, do they have equipment and the majority of the kids didn't have equipment," she said.
She began looking on Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, and asking friends and family in the community. She began storing the equipment she collected in her garage. When McKenzie's team was invited for some ice team at a rink in Midland, about an hour away from their community, she was sitting in the lobby of the arena distributing the donated goods to the kids who showed up to play. That's when she met McWaters, whose son had just played in a tournament there.
"Graham approached me and he's like 'what are you doing there?' and I said, 'you know we're trying to put these kids on the ice, they really want to play hockey,'" McKenzie said. "He says 'I think I can help you out.'"
The following week the pair connected over the phone and McWaters told her he was organizing a small equipment drive with his son's hockey team. Following the drive, they agreed to meet in Barrie so McKenzie could collected the donated hockey equipment.
"Him and his son started unloading the back of their vehicle and there was probably like eight full bags of hockey equipment for me to fit the rest of the kids that wanted to play and it literally brought tears to my eyes," she said.
She took the equipment back to her community and set it up for the kids to come and take what they need and have gear that actually fits. She said that first year was like "our hockey Christmas."
For some the kids, she said the equipment drives mean a first pair of skates, getting to play hockey with their buddies or family, or even playing in the LNHL tournament.
"It's a really amazing thing," she said. "It's the coolest thing to see their smiles when they're trying on, for some of them, their first pair of skates."
Since that first distribution day several years ago, McWaters has continued to hold equipment drives and collect good to donate to more Indigenous communities throughout Ontario. Every year McKenzie and her community on Christian Island is one of the recipients. She said any equipment they don't end up needing is passed on to another Indigenous community nearby.
Last year, McWaters and Indigenous Hockey Equipment Drive accumulated more 1,000 bags, 200 sets of goalie pads and more than 700 sticks that were distributed in 40 different communities. In Newmarket alone, hundreds of hockey bags were collected through the York Simcoe Express drive last year.
McKenzie said she is so proud to be a part of this program and of how much it has grown.
"From one little wish of just a girl asking her friends and family 'do you have any hockey equipment in your basement?' to the chance meeting with Graham and all of his energy and time he's put into growing this program to be the amazing thing that it is now," she said.
The upcoming Newmarket collection event is a drive-by format so you can pull up in your vehicle and drop off your used equipment, which will be taken and sorted on the spot by volunteers who are local hockey players and families.
Only the following equipment items, in working condition, will be accepted:
- skates
- gloves
- elbow pads
- shin pads
- pants
- shoulder pads
- helmets
- hockey sticks
- goalie pads
- hockey bags
You can drop off your donations anytime between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. outside the Magna Centre at 800 Mulock Dr.
