HOCKEY HERO HODGSON TAPPED FOR TOP AWARD
Making sport inclusive for all drives humanitarian efforts by many in Calgary
Calgary is teeming with team players helping to make hockey fun for everyone.
It's not just Kevin Hodgson, who was recognized Wednesday by the NHL for his humanitarian efforts in the sport.
And it's not only Dampy Brar, who was saluted with the same honour — the Willie O'ree Community Hero Award — last year.
“There's just a lot of people who get it here,” said Hodgson, in the hours after winning the 2021 O'ree Award for his leadership in the cross-country HEROS and SUPERHEROS programs.
“There's obviously something in the water here that we want to do right, be leaders and want people to have something to follow,” continued Hodgson. “There's a lot of really good people here in Calgary that are doing really good things with hockey and with other sports and doing right by people who need it.”
Hodgson offered up a few organizations that are driving inclusive efforts on the city's sports landscape.
The Calgary Police Youth Foundation has its Power Play — a free, weekly drop-in hockey (winter) and soccer (summer) program that engages youth ages six to 17 and their families who don't have access to those sports. Its purpose is to help foster trust and understanding between police and youth from diverse and marginalized Calgary communities.
Football-hockey Link, launched by Calgarians Krista Taldorf and Marion Christensen, provides an introductory football and hockey program to up to 50 kids between the ages of eight and 16 each year, focusing on integrating culturally diverse children by helping them feel more connected to their peers.
“There's an adaptive ringette program, Ringette For All, that's starting up this fall,” Hodgson said. “It's sort of modelled after ours in terms of wanting to use the sport and wanting to provide it to kids living with disabilities that have kept them out of the game.
“And I have to say, we're very lucky to have the Calgary Flames Foundation — they're a cut above,” continued Hodgson of the program that strives to improve the lives of kids through the support of health and wellness, education and grassroots sports.
“What the foundation does here for Southern Alberta is next level. Groups like ours don't get to do what we do without that.”
Hodgson's HEROS has been a leader in the NHL'S Hockey is for Everyone network for more than two decades, helping more than 10,000 at-risk boys and girls find empowerment through the sport on and off the ice since 2000. HEROS serves a diverse group of kids, almost half of whom are new Canadians — including 1-in-3 being girls and 70 per cent BIPOC — in 12 cities across the nation.
“The work that Kevin, Norm Flynn and the entire HEROS team have been doing for the past 20 years is remarkable,” said hockey legend O'ree during the video ceremony Wednesday night to laud Hodgson. “HEROS has been a leader in the NHL'S Hockey is for Everyone network for decades. Kevin's dedication has positively impacted thousands of children and their families across Canada, and his leadership has set a standard for how hockey program directors everywhere work in their communities.”
Hodgson also oversees SUPERHEROS, which provides boys and girls living with physical and cognitive challenges with a safe and inclusive environment as well as an adapted on-ice curriculum.
“Even though we've got programs across Canada, we're still very grassroots,” Hodgson said. “It's myself and the founder (Flynn) working from our kitchen tables, and this year, we're going to have over 900 kids across the country and more than 300 volunteers.
“We've had this ability to recruit really exceptional people who aren't looking to create high-level hockey players. We have no interest whatsoever in creating NHL players — that's not our goal.
“It's wanting to use the game to impact these kids' lives away from the ice and just use the ice as a place to learn lessons and learn perseverance and self-confidence.”
In winning this year's O'ree Award, Hodgson beat out two others he considers world-class hockey humanitarians.
Renee Hess with her Black Girl Hockey Club is “a real force when it comes to advocacy and giving a lot of people a voice in hockey.”
Howard Smith, with his Steel City Icebergs and Pittsburgh Warriors programs, “has been giving back to his country his whole life and doing things with hockey in Pittsburgh for 20 years.”