After the tragic bus accident in Saskatchewan on April 6 that claimed the lives of 16 people travelling with the Humboldt Broncos junior 'A' hockey a Cochrane sports organization joined with the nation that has banded together to bring support to tho
After the tragic bus accident in Saskatchewan on April 6 that claimed the lives of 16 people travelling with the Humboldt Broncos junior 'A' hockey a Cochrane sports organization joined with the nation that has banded together to bring support to those who lost loved ones.
P3 Sports Inc. organized an impromptu two-hour public skate on April 7 and raised close to $3,000, all of which is being donated the Humboldt families, piling onto the already more than $8 million raised nationwide.
P3 owner Ryan Hilderman was like many when he heard the shocking and awful news.
"Disbelief really, It's not something anybody ever thinks is possible ... I think we've heard the reaction around the hockey world and I think the common theme is the reason why it affects everybody is that everyone has been on the bus or sent their kids on bus trips ... that's just what we do in Canada," Hilderman said.
"Your head obviously goes there and then it goes to the families of the victims and then the survivors and what they have to be going through ... it's just a horrific tragedy and one that will probably go deeper than any of us will ever know. That's the train of thought I'm positive most Canadians have gone through that have had anything to do with hockey."
Hilderman said while he'd rather not get into specifics, the accident also hits close to home as people who work or train with P3 Sports have relationships with some of those involved in the crash.
"One of our trainers and one of our on-ice coaches just moved here from Saskatoon, so they've worked with players that were obviously on the bus, coaches kids that were on the bus as well," Hilderman said.
"I'm from a small town, Strasbourg (Saskatchewan) and that's where one of the assistant coaches (from the Broncos) is from and grew up. It's just difficult. In the hockey world, you don't have to go very far to connect the dots ... everybody knows somebody who knows somebody. That's what makes it so difficult to comprehend."
It was a quick turn around for those at P3 Sports, but he and his business partners thought the public skate was a good way to start to the healing process for those in the community while also raising money to donate to the Broncos GoFundMe page.
"You watch the news at night and you start to see the reaction ... the GoFundMe page, and the first thing you start to think of is 'we wish we could do something'. My business partners and I were chatting and came up with the idea to do something where it seemed appropriate to obviously raise money but give families the chance to get on the ice and be together," Hilderman said.
"We know it affected us fairly closely and it helped us to be around other people and get on the ice for a couple hours to just smile and have fun. It also gave us a chance to visit and talk about it ... talk about the different connections and it's all part of the process that people need to get over something like that. The main goal was obviously that and to be able to give something back to the community of Humboldt and the families involved. We'll never know how much they're hurting and it would be unfathomable to be directly impacted by this and to have family members that are affected."
"Nothing will ever be enough ... $(8) million has been raised which is fantastic and that's maybe the light that's shining through that this is the support of the hockey community for the community of Humboldt. We just felt like we had to do our part as best we could."
Hilderman did said if there was one positive to come out of these horrific events, was how quickly the country came together, as well as the community who came out in waves to donated throughout the two-hour public skate, where the cost per person was $5.
"We got to $3,000, which is fantastic. We can't say enough about how proud we are of our community and how quickly things came together. People got on social media and shared the event, suggested other friends come out and while we didn't do an actual head count there was easily over 200 people there over the course of the two hours," said Hilderman.
"People who were unable to skate were just dropping in and dropping money in the donation box. We had people who couldn't make it phone in to help out as well. It speaks volumes for those who live in the community of Cochrane and how quickly we're able to rally around something like this."
"We never know when it could be us or could be a community nearby. It's uplifting to see our community do that and pull together and it's uplifting to see the support of the hockey community across the country and the world. It's been phenomenal to see who's donating and who's donating what."
"It's probably why the main reason we should all love this sport because it is all about team and community first and foremost. So it really is uplifting to see that shine through in people."
