15 Nunavut girls heading to Wickenheiser hockey festival

Fifteen girls from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, are headed to the Wickenheiser Female World Hockey Festival in Calgary at the end of next month.

Coach Mikki Adams sent an email to the four-time Olympic Gold medallist without telling the team.

Adams wanted Wickenheiser to come to Rankin Inlet to teach the girls more hockey skills.

Instead, Wickenheiser invited the girls to WickFest.

“Just knowing the cost the team in Rankin Inlet would have to incur to come to the festival,” Wickenheiser says, “we approached Canadian Tire and they were very keen and gracious enough to fully fund the trip: their flights, their meals, their accommodations.”

The Rankin Inlet girls will join hundreds of other women from all over the world for a week-long hockey camp. They’ll get free hockey gear, and one-on-one lessons from Wickenheiser herself.

Adams says she started the girls team when her daughter reached the level where hitting was allowed. Up until then, she’d been content to play with the boys.

“And then at that time there was no girls hockey, so she took a year off and then we started up a girls hockey group here in Rankin,” Adams says.

Wickenheiser says it's important for everyone — boys and girls — to take part in hockey.

“Especially in the North,” she says. “At times there’s not a lot to do but one positive place you can be is around the hockey rink… for girls to be able to have that is great.“

The girls got the surprise news from Wickenheiser over Skype.

Over 85 teams around the world will be joining WickFest.

The tournament has been running for five years.