Scholarships honour Humboldt Broncos players

ST. ALBERT, ALTA.— Former National Hockey League player Chris Joseph wants people to remember his son for his love of hockey and the smile he brought into every room.

Jaxon Joseph, 21, was one of 16 people who died last spring when the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team bus and a semi-trailer collided at a Saskatchewan intersection on the way to a playoff game.

“He was a happy kid,” Joseph said. “He was a big, bright light who liked to help others. He was the type of guy who made people feel valued.”

Joseph wants to see others with a similar attitude honoured through the Jaxon Joseph “For the Love of the Game” scholarship — one of four created by the St. Albert- Humboldt Remembrance Committee in Alberta.

Nolan Crouse, the committee chair, said members, like many Canadians, were touched by the loss after the Broncos bus crash on April 6.

“Four of those Broncos were St. Albert hockey products,” he said. “We’re a community of family, and we’re a community who cares, so we have chosen to raise funds.”

Another committee member, Judi Bahl, said they are almost halfway toward their goal of $500,000. Much of the money has been raised through the committee’s Jersey Gala, a sold-out event held last night in St. Albert. It featured speeches by Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean, former CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge and a perfor- mance of “Big League” by singer-songwriter Tom Cochrane.

Some of the money has paid for a bronze stick sculpture outside the Jarome Iginla Arena in St. Albert, a city just north of Edmonton, and four memorial benches on the community’s pathways. The rest will go to the four scholarships named after the St. Albert players who died in the crash: Logan Hunter’s “Youth Leadership,” Conner Lukan’s “Tighten Your Skates” and Stephen Wack’s “Confidence to Follow Your Heart” scholarships.

Shauna Nordstrom, Hunter’s mother, said the scholarships are an important legacy.

“The thought that I’ve had behind everything I’ve been doing is ‘What would Logan want?’ ” she said.

“He’d love the fact that there’s a bench at the (outdoor rink). He’d want (his sisters) Shaylyn and Shelby’s kids to go there one day and enjoy that, and for us to walk down the street with Charlie, our dog, to spend some time there.”

Hunter’s scholarship will help fund off-season training for a hockey player with the St. Albert Raiders who wants to play junior A hockey.

“I want it to be to an individual that has that goal,” said Nordstrom. “He was so proud to wear the Raiders jersey.”