Nunavut kids get to play hockey thanks to Ottawa equipment drive

Ninety-two hockey bags full of equipment. 200 sticks. 345 pairs of skates. 2000 hockey jerseys. And a wall of goalie pads that stretches 12 feet long, and three feet high.

This is just some of the hockey equipment donated to Nunavut by Ottawa residents.

"We have a 64-foot trailer and it's almost full of gear," Bev Mulligan, an administrative assistant for the Ottawa police and liaison for the equipment drive, said.

The trailer came from the biggest donator-the Letrim Minor Hockey Association (LMHA). Atco Structures donated the trailer to the LMHA for the drive, and it was put in their home arena's parking lot, where passers-by could drop off their bags of used equipment. Donations that went through the LMHA amounted to half of the city's total-and they did it in three days.

"It's a very tight community, because we've had some challenges of our own," said Paul Conley, president of the LMHA. "We got the ball rolling by just calling our membership, and asking for help. We were overwhelmed with the response we got."

The equipment drive began when former Ottawa Police const. Louise Lafleur went to Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut, a hamlet with a population of fewer than 500 people, on a policing exchange to head the RCMP detachment located there in mid-October.

A couple weeks after she arrived, Lafleur sent an e-mail to Mulligan, telling her that the ice in the arena was ready, but there was no gear for the kids to play.

That's when she got the idea for the equipment drive, and now there's enough gear to outfit the kids in Qikiqtarjuaq a few times over, thanks to an outpouring of support in the Ottawa community. Donations also came from a Play It Again Sports outlet, and a Royal Lepage realty firm, and various other minor hockey associations in the area, among others.

Lafleur says that the hamlet is getting ready for the gear's arrival.

"We have created a committee here in the community to distribute and organize (the equipment) and plan ice time," she said in an e-mail. "It has been such a ripple effect, the community as a whole will be touched by this tremendous outpouring."

Mulligan said the equipment will be airlifted up to Iqaluit, Nunavut, before the busy holiday rush. From there it will make its way to Qikiqtarjuaq, but it won't stop there.

"Whatever they don't need they'll forward on to other communities," she said.