Power of Play available in Strathmore

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Chevrolet Power of Play Hockey program in partnership with Hockey Canada was introduced in December to inspire young Canadians to be better people through positive values in the game of hockey.
The program is working with seven ambassadors who are former Team Canada players. Each of those ambassadors provides a word that’s really important to them in hockey and in life, said officials.
“For example Ryan Smyth is one of the ambassadors,” said Dana Gladstone, Hockey Canada’s vice president of business development and partnerships.
“Ryan’s word is heart and he talks about heart and what it means. This program conveys those words in a number of ways to the peewee players. They’re really at an age where they can understand abstract ideas. It’s the right age to reinforce these messages to them.”
Gladstone said they have seen tremendous response to the program and have hit their targets in the program so they can share it with coaches right across the country.
She added The program gives the coaches the opportunity to recognize their players with a commemorative puck for doing something inspiring on and off the ice.
“It’s the coach’s opportunity to not just say ‘you know what, great you scored the winning goal or that’s a great pass you made,’” said Gladstone.
“It could be you know what ‘you made a decision to the benefit of a teammate, you really did something that was inspirational.’ It’s really all about inspiration. It could be somebody at the end of the game because it was an important game and it ended up they shortened the bench a little bit and somebody who didn’t get to play at the end certainly could be recognized because they really cared about their team.”
She added that players can be awarded for their off-ice efforts; for example, where someone organized a particular event and a player got involved, or a player helped a teammate with homework.
Strathmore Motor Products Marketing Director Patrice Fernandez thinks there are some perks to look forward to for local peewee coaches in this program.
“It will benefit Strathmore because if you are a peewee coach and you’ve signed up your team, you’ll be receiving a kit completely free,” said Fernandez.
“Each item has been created using words of inspiration from Team Canada Gold Medal winners. Now they’ve passed them on to the next generation to do the same. The involvement is to thank and assist our loyal and future customers by supporting a sport that most love and find new talents for Team Canada 2023.”
Strathmore peewee coaches are qualified if they are registered with Hockey Canada and are validated for the coaching kit.
Coaches can sign up and find more information at www.gm.ca.