More than hockey: Dalhousie's Bélanger leads program to help children with Down syndrome

When Dalhousie University hockey player Alec Bélanger played major ju‐ nior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League, the coaches stressed the im‐ portance of community in‐ volvement to their players.

For the then 16-year-old who had some growing up to do, he didn't understand what it had to do with hock‐ ey.

"Why wouldn't it be, like, play hard, be tough?" Bélanger remembers think‐ ing.

Now 21, Bélanger, who was born in Quebec City but moved around a lot, has wrapped up his rookie sea‐ son with the Tigers. He earned the Atlantic University Sport award for rookie of the year for his play on the ice.

Off of it, he was honoured with the student-athlete community service award for starting a program at the uni‐ versity that pairs student vol‐ unteers with children with Down syndrome and their siblings. The group meets and does activities and exer‐ cises one day each week. It could include bingo, a scav‐ enger hunt or playing catch.

He said the wisdom of those coaches changed his life. "No matter what I do with my life, some part of it's gonna be volunteer work," he said.

Bélanger spent the first 2½ seasons of his major ju‐ nior career playing for the Ottawa 67's. For most of his time there, the head coach was André Tourigny, a former Halifax Mooseheads head coach who now coaches the NHL's Arizona Coyotes.

Tourigny said he's "ex‐ tremely proud" of Bélanger.

"I think there's no better reward than seeing your ath‐ letes, the person you coach, turning into that kind of a person," he said in a recent phone interview from Toron‐ to when the Coyotes were in town to play the Maple Leafs. "That's 10 out of 10."

Tourigny said he stresses community involvement for many reasons. One is that he thinks hockey players are role models.

"When you have the power to help people and to change lives, I think it's an unbelievable power," said Tourigny.

He said that while volun‐ teer work won't help improve hockey skills, it will help build their self-confidence.

"Because when you see those people, what they go through in their life, and they're resilient and they never quit, it's tough to feel sorry about yourself," said Tourigny. "So now when you [face] adversity, you're way more resilient."

During the 2021-22 sea‐ son, Bélanger was traded to the Kingston Frontenacs. He was sent to skate one day with the participants of a program called Extra Awe‐ some. This program paired student volunteers from Queen's University with kids with Down syndrome.

Student Madison Cooper helps run the program at the university. She remembers Bélanger's first volunteer session vividly. The team filmed it.

"You could tell his passion and you could tell his easy ability to just, like, connect with these children," she said.

When Bélanger wrapped up his major junior career with the Frontenacs a year ago, he decided he'd go to Dalhousie University to study kinesiology and play hockey. But he also wanted to set up a chapter of Extra Awesome at the university.

Getting that running meant sorting out things like insurance and finding a space, volunteers and partici‐ pants. Cooper has helped him with this.

The program launched in late January and meets for one hour on Sundays in a room at the Studley gymnasi‐ um.

Stephanie Carr has brought her three kids to Ex‐ tra Awesome.

The Beechville, N.S., mom's middle child, Kayla, 9, has Down syndrome and is non-verbal. She said she's told her youngest child, Dy‐ lan, 7, that he doesn't have to come, but he insists on it.

"He's not always in the same group as Kayla, but just his presence makes her more comfortable," said Carr. "And it's just good for them to be around other families who al‐ so have kids with special needs because they're not re‐ ally around those other kids as much."

She said parents also benefit from the program.

"It's great for me just to be around other parents who have kids with similar needs because we talk about what

we're going through," she said. "And … it's not very of‐ ten we get to talk to some‐ one who's going through ex‐ actly the same thing as us."

The weekly sessions have attracted around a dozen participants.

At a recent session, it was hard to tell whether the vol‐ unteers or kids were having more fun.

Looking ahead

While the program will run until the end of the uni‐ versity term, Bélanger hopes they will do some summer activities, such as a beach outing.

Bélanger said the three things he looks most forward to are school, hockey and the program.

"But if there's one thing that I don't want to live with‐ out, it would be this pro‐ gram," he said.

Bélanger is unsure what life holds after his studies fin‐ ish, but he hopes Extra Awe‐ some will live on.

He said it sounds selfish to talk about the joy the pro‐ gram brings him.

"It makes you feel re‐ warded and you should feel good about doing this kind of stuff," he said. "But at the end of the day, you under‐ stand that this is affecting something bigger than yourself and that's what it's all about really."

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