Michael Zoe sent in the application because the sportsplex didn't have enough skates for all the kids

Kids in Behchoko are excited after getting a huge donation of sporting equipment worth about $150,000. The donation, from Sport Central in Edmonton, includes enough hockey gear for 120 kids, baseball bats and gloves, lacrosse sticks and soccer cleats.

 

The plan is to loan each of the youth a full set of hockey equipment while keeping some equipment at the Kohn Go Cho Complex so kids can go skating after school. The kids are expected to give the equipment back when they grow out of it, so that another kid can use it.

 

Sport Central is a charitable organization in Alberta that provides sporting equipment for low-income kids. The organization collects and distributes donated sporting equipment. In order to qualify for a donation, the community needs verification from the RCMP, which detachment officer Scott Young provided. 

 

Before the donation, there was a limited number of skates and helmets, so kids often couldn't go skating.

 

Michael Zoe, the complex's building maintainer, volunteered to get the application going for the community. He's not the recreation coordinator, but he noticed that a lot of kids didn't have the equipment they needed.

 

"Every day that I'm here, Monday to Friday, I see about 120 kids," said Zoe. "They come right across from the school and a lot of them want to go skating, but we don't have the skates for them."

 

Before Christmas, Zoe enlisted help from a few community members and put together an application for Sport Central. The donation, a mix of new and used equipment, arrived last week.

 

Zoe said the only cost will be shipping fees, but that bill hasn't come in yet.

 

Monday afternoon, Zoe enlisted help from kids in grade 6 at the school to unload 10 pallets of gear off the truck.

 

The donation came with goalie gear for six goalies, so Zoe is hoping to start up a hockey league with six teams.

Tyanna Camsell, 10, goes to the sportsplex every day after school. She said there have been times when she couldn't go skating because there wasn't enough equipment.

 

"We don't usually have lots of skates to do stuff with," said Camsell. She helped unload the sporting equipment when it arrived on Friday. She said she gets sad when there isn't enough equipment for her to skate, and she's excited that that won't be a problem anymore.

 

But she doesn't intend on using any of the other equipment brought in: "I don't want to try new sports."

 

 

Written by Jamie Malbeuf · CBC News · Posted: Jan 15, 2019 11:21 AM CT | Last Updated: January 15

Website link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/geared-up-for-fun-kids-in-behchoko-all-smiles-after-150k-sporting-goods-donation-1.4978783