Brookview HEROS. Donika Paul, 11, of Brookview Middle School is in her first year with the HEROS program. Photo/MARY GAUDET
Jane-Finch students lace up their skates for HEROS program
Some stumbled, some walked, some flew across the ice - all of them laughed.
Dozens of students from Brookview Middle School, in the heart of Jane-Finch, kicked off their hockey season this week at Canlan Ice Sports at York University.
"I'm OK, I'm a little rusty," assessed Grade 7 student Khadar Hilowli, 12, of his first day back on the ice. But he's already sure what he wants to work on this year.
"I can skate, like really fast, but I always tumble or fall and I can't get off the ice quickly."
Giving kids like Hilowli a helping hand is the focus of the charitable Hockey Education Reaching Out Society (HEROS) program, which has been providing interested kids from Brookview with free equipment and weekly training since 2008. The collaboration is due in part to the involvement of Brookview's Jamaican-Canadian principal, Karl Subban. father of Montreal Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban.
HEROS, supported by Telus and The Forzani Group Foundation, also operates in Toronto's Regent Park and in eight other poor communities across Canada.
"We're working with kids coming from difficult socio-economic backgrounds," explained Moe Hasham, director of programs in eastern Canada for HEROS. "The economics of playing a sport like hockey is challenging for most families. I mean, not having enough money to purchase food or keep your heat on is more a priority than spending $1,000 on equipment (or) $500 on registration. It's just out of reach for most of the families in the schools in the areas in which we work."
"We want to keep these kids off the street and we want to give kids the opportunity to play a sport, but (also) learn life skills from that sport."
Such hockey opportunities are rare in Jane-Finch. The city has no outdoor hockey rinks in the area to play free shinny, the closest one being seven kilometres away from Brookview near Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue. The indoor Grandravine Arena, just over four kilometres away, does offer shinny one afternoon a week for middle-school aged children.
"Once you get them on the ice, you can see that these boys and girls - some of them have a lot of natural ability but they've never had the opportunity to show it," noted Willie O'Ree, the first black man to play in the NHL more than a half century ago. The Order of Canada winner is now an ambassador and director of youth development for the National Hockey League's (NHL) Diversity program and he was on hand for the Brookview launch.
"Some of them say, 'Well I want to play in the NHL'," he said of the kids. "If that's your dream, work toward your dream. And don't let anybody tell you that you can't attain your goal, if you feel strongly within your heart and within your mind. My expression is, 'If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you're right.'"
While the NHL may not be on the radar yet for all of Brookview's kids, some had a goal in mind when they decided to lace up the skates for the first time in full equipment.
"Because it would be a new challenge for me and I like to take on something new," said a smiling Donika Pual, 11, a Grade 6 student in her first year in the Brookview HEROS program and on skates for only the third time. "And some people say that girls can't play, and I wanted to show them that girls can play anything."
Source: http://www.insidetoronto.com/sports/article/885791--off-the-streets-and-onto-the-ice
