Sometimes the biggest assists come outside of the hockey rink.
For members of the Okotoks Midget AA and Peewee AA Black Oilers teams a teachable moment came in the form of off the ice activity with a food drive in support of the Okotoks Food Bank.
“Most of these kids are fairly privileged, when you’re playing AA hockey it’s a costly thing,” said Okotoks Peewee AA head coach Randy Partaker. “It’s good for them to see this side of it. Some of our kids were actually surprised Okotoks even had a food bank.
“So to actually bring them here and show them this and say ‘there are people in our own community who use this’ is a huge eye-opening experience for these kids.”
It’s the second year in a row Okotoks Midget AA Black has held a food drive during the holiday season.
“It’s great exposure. Guys learn about helping out the community and giving back,” said Midget AA captain Ryan Bedard. “Doing what you can in the holidays, giving food helps a lot of people.
“It’s a really good experience, doing this for the community and helping out.”
The help is needed.
Food banks have been leaned on exponentially throughout the province and Okotoks is no different. The local food bank reports an over 100 per cent increase in demand since 2014.
“As coaches we were talking about how can we help out? How can we give back? How do we teach these guys something?” Partaker said. “We came up with the food drive idea.
“We want to make them good people, we want good character guys and they have to give back to the community. That’s all part of being on the team.”
As part of a mentorship between the teams, players from the Peewee and Midget squad were paired up during the food drive – held on Nov. 29.
Each group of two was given a geographic area of Okotoks mapped out by Midget team manager Bob Smith and two-and-a-half hours to collect food and toiletries.
“We got lots of support. From the first couple houses we got quite a bit of food,” said Peewee AA captain Liam Watkins. “It’s good to help other people in the community and especially getting food for people who need it.”
The team bonding aspect of the off-ice activities can actually transfer to the ice.
“We love it,” Bedard said. “Anything we can do off ice to build chemistry and just be around each other more really helps out with the team building.”
The food drive truly was a team effort.
Far from exclusive to the players, virtually everyone involved with the two clubs gave a helping hand to the initiative.
“It’s phenomenal. Kids and parents. We had multiple trailers offered, almost all the parents offered vehicles,” Partaker said. “This year everyone who was healthy was there. We had moms go out last night in place of their kids.
“If they can take a little bit out of this and every year continue on giving back a little bit then we have done our jobs as coaches.”
