Sales from 'most Canadian photo ever' to go to Syrian refugees
'We just wanted to make sure that moment wasn't lost and that we could do something positive with the image'
The B.C. Mountie in what some have dubbed the 'most Canadian photo ever' has decided to donate the proceeds from the sale of the prints to help Syrian refugees and the local hockey arena.
"I mean, how much more Canadian does it get? Hockey, and you know what we are as people, that's what being Canadian is all about — donating, and giving," said Corporal Shaun Begg.
The photo of Cpl. Begg — wearing his red serge and playing hockey on an ice patch at the top on a mountain in B.C.'s Kootenay area — made waves when the B.C. RCMP tweeted it out last Spring.
He and Rick Wiltse, the photographer behind the viral image, never expected the image to go viral, but now that it has they decided to use it for good.
"We just wanted to make sure that moment wasn't lost and that we could do something positive with the image," said Begg.
Part of the proceeds will go to refurbishing the local hockey arena in Kaslo, where Begg was stationed when the photograph was taken.
Begg has since been transferred to Smithers.
With files from Stephanie Mercier.