THE GIFT OF SPORT
Athletic gear flown to Canoe Lake
When retired Saskatoon police officer Joel Pedersen visited the Canoe Lake Cree First Nation recently to run a fitness camp with youth, he noticed some of the students were wearing boots or were shoeless.
Pedersen, the owner and founder of Fitness 2J2, is a member of Fond du Lac First Nation who has lived in Saskatoon all his life. Since retiring from the police force, he has also been involved in outreach to youth through programs he offers in Saskatoon and in northern communities.
During his week in Canoe Lake, he worked closely with Canoe Lake Miksiw School physical education teacher Dennis Iron, who is also the football coach and community fitness director, and saw a need in the community for footwear.
He reached out to friend Rob Williams, a retired Peel Regional Police officer he knew through their military service. Williams is currently the manager of the Weyburn Canadian Tire.
Through Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart program — a charity that provides donations, grants and even some costs for children to participate in sports — Williams provided much of the equipment they delivered for the community on Wednesday.
On board they flew north with 25 pairs of football cleats donated from the Weyburn and Regina Canadian Tire stores, as well as pull-up and pushup bars and other items.
While most of it will go to the high school’s contact football team, Pedersen said it’s really for the community as a whole.
Sports programs for children and youth are important ways for them to be active, but also for personal growth, he continued.
“If you can give the opportunity for youth to be involved in a sport, then it’s a huge force multiplier.”
Williams flew to Saskatoon from Weyburn with much of the equipment packed into his single-engine Beechcraft Musketeer to meet Pedersen, who had some more equipment to donate to the Canoe Lake community.
“In 12 years of policing, I saw that a little push, a pair of cleats, could actually make a huge difference in somebody’s life,” Williams said.
The donation will go a long way in the community, said Canoe Lake Chief Francis X. Iron.
The community has been doing its best to keep up with updating its existing equipment, but it has aged, he said.
Young athletes in Canoe Lake also play hockey and lift weights, and other members of the community use the fitness equipment to stay healthy, he said.
“Donations like that mean the world to us here.”