Free youth hockey equipment completes journey from Nanaimo, B.C., to Nunavut

Const. Josh Cook and his fiancé, Katie Isherwood, tare shown in Kinngait with some of the donated gear. (Nanaimo RCMP)

Some gently used hockey equipment completed its journey from Nanaimo, B.C., to Nunavut last week.

Two shipments of skates, hockey sticks, and other equipment made the roughly 3,200-kilometre journey from Vancouver Island to Baffin Island over the past two months.

The idea was sparked last year when RCMP Const. Josh Cook arrived in Kinngait, Nunavut, and noticed some of the local hockey equipment was wearing down.

"Most of the hockey equipment in the community is showing its age and sadly, there just isn’t enough to safely outfit the youth who simply love this great game," said Cook in a release in January.

The constable is formerly from Nanaimo and played on the Vancouver Island University men's hockey team. After seeing the state of the equipment in Kinngait, he contacted some of his friends back on Vancouver Island with a goal of collecting hockey gear to send to Nunavut.

Word of the imitative spread quickly, according to Nanaimo RCMP, and within days dozens of skates and other hockey gear was donated for the cause. Local businesses also offered support, including Kirby's Source for Sports, which provided free skate sharpening, Mounties say.

STORMS CAUSE DELAYS

"Collecting the hockey gear was the easy part," RCMP said in a release on Jan. 25. "Getting it up north took some planning."

Mounties say that historic flash flooding and winter storms in B.C. delayed the shipment of donated hockey gear.

However, in mid-January, the Vancouver Island University men's hockey team was able to shuttle the gear to the Victoria International Airport. The gear was then flown to Edmonton, where RCMP officers transported the equipment from the airport to the Canadian North Cargo terminal, where it was finally taken from Edmonton to Kinngait.

Donated hockey supplies is pictured in Kinngait. (Nanaimo RCMP)"This initiative would not have been possible if it was not for the incredible partnership forged with WestJet Cargo and Canadian North Cargo," said Const. Gary O'Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP.

"Both recognized the importance of this equipment. Each demonstrated incredible community spirit by donating their services, time and space on their respective planes to ensure the hockey gear made its way to Kinngait," he said.

On Friday, Mounties said that a second shipment of donated gear, all from VIU's men's hockey team, arrived in Kinngait.

RCMP say the recent delivery marked a year's worth of effort to get the gear to Nunavut.

"The result was amazing, tons of youth flooded through the front doors of the Kinngait detachment and within around half an hour all the equipment was gone," said Nanaimo RCMP.

"The impact that this gear will have for the youth and the use they will get out of it is huge."