Blind hockey event in Saskatoon gives visually impaired kids a chance to strap on skates
CBC
Dreams came true in a Saskatoon hockey rink Tuesday afternoon as visually impaired kids hit the ice alongside the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men's hockey team.
"I want to become the blind hockey Gretzky," Isaiah Gauthier, who has severe visual impairment and depends on his cane and braille, said. "I'm very excited to be part of blind hockey."
The nine-year-old hopes to someday play alongside his favourite player, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
His mother Renelle Gauthier said they have modified everything at their home to ensure Isaiah lives a full life.
"It takes a village to raise a kid and blind hockey is just that. We want these opportunities for our kids so badly, so that they have the opportunity to live their life to the fullest," she said.
Canadian Blind Hockey, a charity that provides blind hockey programming to young people with visual impairments, returned to Saskatchewan for the first time in nine years this week.
Its program, Try Skating and Blind Hockey, attracted 15 blind or partially sighted children ages of four to 18 from Saskatoon.
Mercedes Crosson said it was a wonderful chance for her daughter, Emma Crosson, to learn how to skate so she can play hockey with her uncles.
"It's very important to make her feel included in sports, so it doesn't make her feel different compared to other kids," Crosson said.
"Our family is big into hockey and this will help my baby girl."
Shayla Stone agreed, saying she often finds her son, Cohen Stone, not being included in many activities due to his visual impairment, which affects his depth perception.
"To not be able to go to a skating birthday party, or to instead walk while other kids skate, or not being included on field trips happens often," she said.
"Kids know when they are not able to join or are missing out on things, so blind hockey is a great way for that inclusion."
Though she has trained in figure skating, Stone feels overwhelmed trying to teach her son how to skate.
The Rachel Notley government's consumer carbon tax wound up becoming a weapon the UCP wielded to drum the Alberta NDP out of office. But that levy-and-repayment program, and the wide-ranging "climate leadership plan" around it, also stood as the NDP's boldest, provincial-reputation-altering move in their single-term tenure.