Red River College presents repaired hockey sticks to Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre

For immediate release: July 27, 2017

WINNIPEG, MB – Eighteen NHL quality game-used hockey sticks have been given a new life at the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre (WASAC), where they will be used by Winnipeg youth dreaming of becoming the next Mark Scheifele or Jocelyne Larocque.

The sticks, which were damaged or broken during last season’s Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose games, were repaired to like-new quality by Red River College students using composite materials and innovative programming.

“The kids and staff at WASAC really represent the spirit of community and we are thrilled to provide them with this new equipment,” Vogt said. “This project is a fantastic training opportunity for our students who are learning to work with different composite materials, and as a bonus we are able to provide the younger generation of Winnipeg’s youth with opportunities to grow through sport.”

True North Sports and Entertainment (TNSE) teamed up with RRC earlier this year and donated the hockey sticks to Aerospace Manufacturing Program. As part of the program’s curriculum, the students repaired the sticks using variety of composite materials.

Vogt was joined by Terry Morris and Chris Marek, the instructors who led the project, to present the 18 sticks to WASAC and join in on a game of hockey.

“We are humbled and excited to be recipients of NHL hockey sticks. These sticks were given to our children at summer camp and I know they’ll create many special road hockey memories as the kids imagine themselves as their hockey heroes,” said Kate Doer, WASAC Kids Camp Coordinator.

Since 1999, WASAC has been providing Indigenous and inner-city youth with access to sport and leisure activities to help them develop leadership skills and remove barriers in reaching their goals. WASAC Summer Kids Camp provides programming for kids from more than 70 schools from across Winnipeg, supplying transportation, nutrition and program equipment.

“WASAC was born from the question ‘what if all children had access to sport?’ We were given the chance to answer this question thanks in large part to incredible partnerships like this one. These relationships were based on the belief that there is nothing too much to ask when making change for future generations,” Doer said.

The RRC composites model factory is located at RRC’s Stevenson Aviation Campus at Winnipeg’s James Armstrong Richardson International Airport, and was created and designed to replicate the environment in an aerospace composite manufacturing facility. Engineering and manufacturing students design and create prototypes of a variety of objects – like hockey sticks. This factory is operated by RRC’s Technology Access Centre for Aerospace & Manufacturing.

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