Icy Knights still going strong in its third year

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Regardless of how the Mariners junior A hockey team performs on the ice, off the ice it’s turning into another successful season for the Icy Knights program that matches the hockey players with young people in the community.

Through Icy Knights – a program unique to the Yarmouth Mariners squad when it comes to teams in the MJAHL – the Mariners spend every Wednesday evening participating in activities with young people in the community who face different challenges in their daily lives. These young people may have Down syndrome or cerebral palsy, they may be confined to a wheelchair, they may be non-verbal, have behavioral issues or have other physical and mental disabilities.

The hockey players are each paired off with a buddy for the season. Carmen Coffin, who helps coordinate the program, says in its third year Icy Knights is still going strong.

Examples of activities that have taken place, or are planned for the year, include birthday parties, a dance, bowling, horseback riding, sledding, the making of abstract hockey art with the Nova Scotia Art Gallery and on-ice activities during intermissions at the Mariners’ home games.

For the young people participating in the program, Wednesday nights are the highlight of their week. And for the Mariners, the impressions are long lasting, with many hockey players including the Icy Knights experience on their résumés when they apply to college or university.

Coffin says aside from the friendships formed, the program is a good learning experience for the players and teaches them something they don’t learn on the ice. “The hockey players have a new perspective on how to deal with somebody who is challenged,” explains Coffin. “They’ll come to me and say, ‘Carmen, he doesn’t speak, how am I going to communicate?’ And I say, ‘Treat him normally, use some sign language or use whatever you want to do.’ So they’re learning how to deal with challenged people.”

And for the young people involved, their families and teachers can easily detect the positive impact the program is having on them. In the case of one boy, says Coffin, behavorial problems he was having at school became non-existent.

Part of the reason for the program’s success is despite the challenges the young people may face, the goal is to get them involved in activities that any normal kid would get to do. True, a wheelchair may be a challenge, but it is not an obstacle to having fun.

In addition to the hockey players, the coaches also get involved.

Icy Knights wraps up around playoff time.

But even after the season ends, and the ice disappears, many of the friendships continue.