Pond hockey gets equipment boost

Times Reporter     

 

The local A&W restaurant is always supportive of local groups and organizations, so it was no surprise to hear they once again did their thing, this time helping out the Gleichen Pond Hockey program. 

Will Whatley, manager of the Strathmore A&W, said a regular customer of his came into the restaurant and mentioned that Gleichen was preparing for their annual pond hockey tournament, and they were looking for new equipment. 

At first the plan was to be a drop-off point for equipment, but that didn’t quite work out, so Whatley and his staff took a different route. 

“We decided to do a silent auction and we raised just over $1,000. We turned that into helmets which this year was one of the major needs, and then we figure next year we can do skates and hockey sticks,” said Whatley.

“We don’t have anything scheduled in winter time really January/February is our slow season effectively for fundraising so this filled a niche for us as well and is something that’s very important in the community.”

Cara Sheppard, president of Gleichen and District Minor Hockey and creator of the pond hockey program, was wowed when she heard the news. 

“I was completely taken back, I couldn’t believe it, it was quite an amazing thing for somebody in the community to just go ahead and do for us and we really appreciated it,” said Sheppard. 

On Feb. 6, a few days before the annual Hockey Day in GA event, Whatley presented Sheppard with 28 new helmets and the leftover cash. Sheppard bought new gloves and elbow pads to add to some of the equipment in the Sea-Can container. 

“We’ve actually completely outfitted two kids this year for our program and we’ll see what happens for our tournament, somebody always forgets some piece of equipment that day so it will definitely come in handy for sure,” said Sheppard.