‘WE’RE ALL ONE TEAM’
From school kids to the mayor, Ottawans donned hockey jerseys on Thursday to honour the victims and support the survivors of the Humboldt bus crash nearly a week ago.
Members of the Canadian Forces were authorized to wear jerseys over their uniforms.
The Jersey Day gesture even boarded city buses.
“Yes, OC Transpo employees, including conventional bus and Para Transpo operators, are encouraged to wear a hockey jersey to work as a show of support for the Humboldt Broncos and their families,” said manager of bus and para transit operations AJ Ryland.
Self-described hockey mom Joanne De Franco summed it up as she tweeted a picture of her three children’s’ Ottawa Senators jerseys on Thursday morning.
“Kids are ready to pay tribute to Humboldt Broncos,” she tweeted. “Thoughts and prayers from Ottawa that you find light in this darkness.”
Paramedics Tim Trumble from Osgoode, Mike Moulton from Woodstock and Steve Osipenko from Renfrew also wore their jerseys to a conference in the capital Thursday.
“When this tragedy happened, my son put every stick on the doorstep he’d had since novice — six of them, and mine made seven,” Trumble said. “Because he knew it wasn’t just that team, it’s every kid that’s ever played hockey.”
Maureen Rice, a 311 operator and part-time firefighter with a young cousin playing junior A hockey, wore a Sens jersey.
“It hits pretty close to home,” she said of the tragedy.
Fourteen-year-old Jasmine Boyce wore a minor hockey jersey to school.
“They lost all those players, so I wanted to show them that even people here in Ottawa — people everywhere — are thinking of them,” she said.
It was a group of hockey moms from British Columbia who first urged people to wear jerseys on Thursday as an expression of support after the Saskatchewan tragedy to send the message that “we’re all one team.”
Sixteen died in the highway crash involving the Broncos junior hockey team’s bus. Another 13werehurt.
Organizer Jennifer Pinch of Langley, B.C., urged participants to post a photo of themselves in a jersey on social media with the hashtag #jerseysforhumboldt.
Michael Wood of Ottawa Special Events and Jarrod Goldsmith of eSAX are also asking fellow members of the business community to honour the people of Humboldt at a blood donor clinic on Saturday. It takes place at 1575 Carling Ave. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“Touring in a rock and roll band for 10 years, I went back and forth across Canada,” Wood writes in a post on LinkedIn.
“Long drives. Sometimes we would be travelling straight for 16 hours at a time. I think this is why Humboldt has hit me as hard as it has.
“It could have been us. In reality it could be any of us. Tragedy can happen in a blink of an eye. You could need blood at any moment.”