Nunavut hamlet gears up for hockey season
Christmas came early in the tiny Nunavut community of Qikiqtarjuaq last week when a plethora of hockey equipment was distributed at the local school.
"I felt like what I imagine Santa feels like on the day after," said Const. Louise Lafleur, the police officer who spearheaded the drive that brought the gear from Ottawa.
The donation drive began in late October and last Monday, 48 boxes and 17 hockey bags full of equipment were opened up at the Inuksuit School, where Lafleur and her volunteers began to hand it out.
"The level of energy in the school shot up, the kids were so excited," she said.
Kids went in bunches to the school gymnasium, where they were fitted with helmets, jerseys and skates.
"Every time I returned to the classrooms for more students, the laughing, hooting and waving arms would start up again," said Lafleur.
In the gym to greet the kids were members of the local government, and elders of the village, a hamlet of less than 500 in eastern Nunavut off Baffin Island in the Davis Strait.
"The elders giggled and laughed as much as the kids," said Lafleur.
That night, other members of the town dropped by the gym to be fitted with donated equipment. About 125 pairs of skates were given out, just in time for the start of the local arena's public skating sessions.
The rest of the gear — sticks, shoulder pads, hockey pants, knee pads — will be sent up to Qikiqtarjuaq after Christmas.
Lafleur started the drive after arriving from the Ottawa police department in a transfer program with the RCMP.
When she found out that there wasn’t enough hockey equipment in Qikiqtarjuaq for kids to play, and few people with skates to enjoy the ice in the local arena, she e-mailed one of her contacts in Ottawa and started the drive.
The response was impressive: 92 full hockey bags of equipment, 200 sticks, 345 pairs of skates, 2,000 jerseys, enough goalie pads to build a metre-high wall four metres long and other equipment.
"It’s a true showing of the big hearts that we have in the city of Ottawa," Lafleur said. "Their efforts were worn on the smiles of each and every community member that left the gym with skates either slung over shoulder, or being carried in their hands by the laces."
There’s so much gear that Qikiqtarjuaq won’t be the only community to benefit from the drive. Extra equipment that the town doesn’t need will be sent to communities across Nunavut.