Retired police officers deliver sports equipment

SASKATOON 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 his friend Rob Williams, a retired Peel Regional Police, who is now 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 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.

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.

The donation will go a long way in the community, said Canoe Lake Chief Francis X. Iron.

“Donations like that mean the world to us here.”