BARRHEAD - Bob Walker says the gently used hockey equipment Skate North delivers to youth in northern Canadian communities is priceless.
However, the truth is that for those living in the communities — more often than not, those north of the 60th parallel in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut — there is a cost, an extravagant one, and if it were not for the not-for-profit organization, one that would be well out of their reach.
"People complain about the prices of groceries, rightfully so, but up north, especially when you go north of 60 and above the Arctic circle," he said. The cost of everyday items in these communities is outrageous," he said.
To illustrate, Walker described his experience walking into a remote northern community's lone store during a Skate North trip about three years ago.
"[The clerk told me] you're lucky everything in the store is on sale today. Yet, a can of Pepsi was $3, and a litre of ketchup was $17," he said. "That's why we say the hockey equipment we send north is priceless."
This year, Skate North is entering its 23rd year and has added Barrhead to the other communities it collects hockey equipment from through the Ripple Connection Support Centre's (RCSC) Thrift Store (6117 48 St).
The RCSC is a not-for-profit organization which opened in 2010; it provides services for people who directly have mental illness and brain injuries, as well as their families and caregivers through its Main Street drop-in centre.
Walker noted that Skate North would pick up any equipment the Ripple Connection thrift store does not sell, along with equipment from Whitecourt (at the Repeat Boutique), Mayerthorpe (ECHOS Thrift Store), Onoway (Onoway Thrift Shop) and Sangudo (Pit Stop).
In early February, Walker and a team of volunteers make the round, picking up the equipment and then taking it to Sangudo. There, it is picked up by Whitecourt Transport, which delivers it to The Brick Sports Palace in Edmonton for sorting.
From there, the hockey equipment is taken to the Air North terminal, where it is eventually delivered to remote northern communities in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and the Yukon as space allows.
"Adjudicators representing the northern communities then decide which community or communities will get the equipment," Walker said.
Last year, three Northwest Territories communities, Norman Wells, Fort McPherson and Inuvik, were the beneficiaries.
"We took it on Northern Transport, a barge that goes down [Peel River] to the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean," he said. "We started in Hay River."
Walker chose to collect the equipment in February because it is heart month.
"That's what this is, an affair of the heart between us and the people of the north," he said.
Walker said, like most things, Skate North happened by circumstance.
"In 2000, a buddy that I used to work with when I was in the oil and pipeline business with Alberta Gas Trunk Line invited me to go hunting and fishing with him in Artic Red River [since renamed Tsiigehtchic]," he said. "I was looking around and saw all these kids playing [baseball], and the equipment was in very poor condition. Then I asked him about hockey equipment."
His friend replied that the community did not have enough money to buy proper equipment for baseball, let alone hockey.
"[Walker's friend told him that] when we go south to the big cities, we buy food and clothes, not sporting equipment," Walker said, adding that Tsiigehtchic is roughly 160 kilometres south of Inuvik on the Mackenzie River.
A year later, Tsiigehtchic was the first Skate North equipment drop.
As for how long Skate North will continue, the 79-year-old Sangudo resident said he does not see the need for the equipment diminishing anytime soon, nor does he have any plans to stop, saying when he is no longer able continue, someone else will take up the mantle.
"It is a labour of love, and I'm just the coordinator. A lot of volunteers are involved every year to make this a reality," Walker said, adding he wished everyone involved could go on a Skate North trip. "You feel like Santa Claus. We unloaded the plane [referring to a trip to Pangnirtung, Nunavut] and put the sticks and pucks down, and they just disappeared. This young guy was going across the runway, and I said, 'If he gets a breakaway, he'll go all the way to Baffin Island.'"
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
