Despite the challenges, large donations of hockey equipment from the folks at Nanaimo have reached some happy players in northern Canada.

“Within half an hour all the equipment we collected was gone. It was really crazy,” said Cst. Joshua Cook.

Last year, immediately after becoming Mountie Cst. Cook and stationed in Iqaluit, he traveled to the remote indigenous community of Kinngait, north of Hudson Bay, where ice was plentiful but hockey equipment was hard to come by.

A boy asked him to borrow his roller skates. They were too big but it gave Cook an idea.

Cook, a former ice hockey player with the VIU Mariners contacted his former coach, one of Nanaimo’s RCMP officersasked if some equipment could be found for the children in the village of 1,200 people.

“It’s a fly-in fly-out community so everyone has to come by boat or plane and the community does their best to support each other and support the youth but money has always been an issue in northern communities as it is very expensive to run. , said Koki.

The Head of the Mariner’s VIU hockey Club took up the cause.

“There is a whole community behind this and I am very, very happy and impressed with what has come together for this,” said Myles Parsons, President of VIU’s Mariner Hockey Club.

The folks at Nanaimo donated over 200 pounds of equipment last spring but then came another challenge.

“Eventually we got the gear and then the problem was we were trying to find a way to get it here because it was so expensive,” Cook said.

Despite road damage and other setbacks, the equipment made it to Victoria airport before West Jet and Canadian North carriers transported the equipment to Kinngait free of charge.

Cook said he helped deliver it last week.

“Just seeing the joy on people’s faces and the gratitude that they’re going to be able to go into the pool and have a great game and have a game of pickup and enjoy Canada’s national sport is really heartwarming,” Cook said.

“It’s a good feeling and it pushes us to do more,” Parsons said.

One big goal scored with many assists, the stars of this game are too many to mention.

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