St. Timothy High School has joined the laundry list of people donating to Humboldt Broncos junior ‘A’ hockey team’s GoFundMe page, which is now well north of 12 million dollars.
The Saskatchewan team was travelling to Nipawin, Sask., for a playoff game when the team’s bus collided with a semi truck at the intersection outside of Tisdale, Sask., killing 16 members of the Broncos organization while injuring another 13 during that horrific accident on April 6.
St. Tim’s student did their best to chip in hosting a ‘shoot to win’ fundraiser and lunch on April 12. St. Timothy schoolteacher and one of many fundraiser organizers Kevin MacLellan said that everyone across Canada was deeply affected by the Humboldt tragedies.
“I heard the news Friday night. My brother-in-law who lives in Saskatchewan actually texted me saying there had been an accident and it hit close to home for many reasons … my wife is from there and then going back to my own experiences with my hockey career, the hours and hundreds of trips on the bus, you never think of that happening,” MacLellan said.
“As a player, a kid or a person who’s part of a team, a group of brothers really, you don’t expect that. It was heartbreaking to say the least.”
“When you get on a hockey team, those guys become your brothers. You can’t even imagine losing your teammate or what their community might be going through,” said St. Timothy student Kyle Lappin, who also laced up the skates for the Midget AA Bow Valley Timberwolves.
Lappin’s teammate and fellow classmate Josh Novak said, “It’s crazy. There aren’t any words to describe it. Playing hockey growing up and just imagining how that must feel … especially for the parents and family. Almost everyone in Canada has played a sport and been on the roads travelling and it’s everyone’s worst nightmare. Kyle (Lappin) and I alone have been on countless number of bus trips playing hockey so it’s really hard to comprehend something like this.”
On a more positive note, MacLellan said the school just wanted to do its part in helping out those in need.
“We as a school felt like we needed to do something to honour those in the crash as well as raise some money for the GoFundMe page. (Teacher) Michelle Fior, she had a wonderful idea of putting something together … we didn’t know exactly of what it was going to be,” MacLellan said.
“We spoke with another teacher (Richard Theroux) here at the school and we kind of thought to involve something with the hockey side of it, which would get the students more involved instead of just donating money.”
“With that idea, we thought we could maybe partner with a community business … with the Morrison’s (Joe, Annie, Sean and Thomas) being in our school, we thought of Dairy Queen (the family owns the Cochrane location) and they jumped on board immediately. They donated the ice cream sandwiches and burgers for lunch to those who donated towards the GoFundMe page. It was a quick turnaround but with the reaction of all staff and students it certainly took hold and was worth while.”
The school ended up raising more than $1,600, which smashed the goal they set out to achieve.
“We had a goal of $500 and our school district had a goal of $55,000, which is a dollar per student. So we set a $500 dollar goal, so a dollar per student and staff,” MacLellan said.
“With raising the money we did, that speaks volumes to how people felt about this and the impact it’s had on individuals, groups, teams, families, everything. It’s pretty outstanding to see the support.”
“It’s all over North America and the world. The t-shirts and sticks out on the door front all over the place … I think it’s a testament to society as a whole. As much as this is a tough time, there are still people across the world with big hearts and generous folks out there that band together.”
“The hockey community as big as it is, is also very small when it comes to something like this and a very tight knit group. You could say the same for any sports for that matter. Anyone whose involved with a team can relate to this certain matter, so it really does say something about the big hearts that people have … unfortunate circumstances to say the least, but at least everybody can band together in a time of need and do a little bit to help those who were affected.”
