‘The true embodiment of a well-rounded man’
Power made such an impression on his junior team that the Icerays named an award after him
Why the man in the wheelchair picked out Brad Power, we’ll never know for sure.
Perhaps it was because he looked fit enough for the needed task. Maybe it was simply because Power was the only one close by, although that’s unlikely since the Marina district of Corpus Christi was crowded for the Art Walk, a regular cultural and entertainment event held in the Texas city’s downtown.
Or maybe the man with the need somehow perceived in Power the innate helpful trait that would be later officially recognized by the young Newfoundlander’s hockey team.
Whatever the case, the man in the wheelchair approached Power, looking for assistance.
“He asked me if I could help him get to the bus station down the road, and I said no problem,” said the 21-year-old St. John’s native, who had been attending the Art Walk as part of the community involvement program of the Corpus Christi Icerays, his junior hockey team.
“So I started pushing him, and we talked. I told him about how I played hockey for the local team. He told me where he had been just discharged from hospital and had nobody there to help him.
“Every so often, I’d ask him exactly where the bus station was and he kept saying it was just up the road. So we just kept going and going and talking all the way. The next thing I know, we’re about an hour into town before we get to (the station).
“When we got there, I was in a part of town that was unfamiliar to me. Afterwards, I was told it was a pretty hard spot and, to be honest, I had already kind of figured that out. But we got there, I dropped him off, I said goodbye and started heading back the way I came.
“I found out there was kind of a search party for me, because I had been gone so long and nobody knew exactly where I was.”
It was just one of the incidents cited when, during their end-of-the-season awards presentation earlier this month, the Icerays introduced a new honour — the Brad Power Award.
The award’s namesake was the first to receive it, and Power was bowled over by the revelation of the honour.
“I had no idea. It was out of the blue and they surprised me with it. It was very nice surprise,” said Power, a centre who has finished a two-year stay with the Icerays as one of the North American Hockey League team’s all-time leading scorers.
Power had already been named the team’s Community Man of the Year for his willingness to participate in events organized by the team, but the new award was created to spotlight his — and future Icerays’ — work outside that scope. It was for spontaneous acts like the one during the Art Walk, or when a young fan, who had skated with Power during postgame skates throughout the past two seasons, requested his attendance at her birthday party at a trampoline park. He happily obliged, spending an afternoon — smack-dab in the middle of the Icerays’ playoff push — bouncing around as the guest of honour of the guest of honour.
As the Icerays’ press release announcing the award said, the team felt they needed to acknowledge what Power did, “beyond the call of duty and being the true embodiment of a well-rounded man” and to establish, “a new award given to a player who goes out of his way to touch the lives of community members without looking for public recognition or team obligation and exemplifies what it means to be an upstanding man.”
“I guess that’s got to be the Newfoundland roots ... and my family, my parents (Jim and Carmel),” answered Power, when asked about his altruistic nature.
“I don’t know, really. I really don’t think about it. It’s just something I do, either because I want to do, or there’s something that needs to be done.
“I don’t know, but I do know I’m glad to do it.”