Cst. Josh Cook (blue and red toque) helped spearhead an effort to collect hundreds of pounds of hockey gear in Nanaimo and deliver it to the far northeastern community of Kinnigait, Nunavut. (submitted photos)

By Jordan Davidson

canada's game

Hundreds of pounds of locally donated hockey gear arrives in Nunavut

Mar 20, 2022 | 6:30 AM

NANAIMO — Kids on the other side of Canada are benefitting from a huge amount of local donations.

Cst. Josh Cook has made good on his promise to take donated hockey equipment from Nanaimo and central Vancouver Island, to his first posting after graduating RCMP Depot in Kinnigait, Nunavut (formerly known as Cape Dorsett).

The former VIU Mariner, who spend four years playing in Nanaimo, saw the need for gear in the far north, remote community of around 1,400 people, especially among the town’s youth.

“There’s obviously tons of ice in the Arctic, but a lot of kids didn’t have very much hockey gear…the skates were too small, they didn’t have sticks, they didn’t have gloves or helmets.”

A few calls back to his adopted home for help from friends and former teammates. Word quickly spread throughout the community and donations started coming in fast in April 2021.

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Local stores and hockey teams like the Oceanside Generals and Cook’s former team led the way. In the end, he was able to collect hundreds of pounds of hockey equipment ready to be shipped up north.

Collecting all the gear turned out to be the easy part.

Getting it to the remote location, about 200 kilometres north of the most northern point of Quebec was more of a challenge, as the only way to bring supplies to the isolated community is by plane or boat.

“WestJet and Canadian North Cargo, a northern airline, were generous enough to donate their services to get the gear up here free of charge for us, Cook told NanaimoNewsNOW.
“It was a pretty amazing experiences working together with all these organizations to complete this common goal.”

Gear from Nanaimo made a massive trek through private and RCMP planes to Kinnigait, Nunavut courtesy an initiative spearheaded by a former Nanaimo hockey player, turned RCMP officer. (Google Earth)

Bags began to move in January, with VIU Mariners general manager Myles Parsons taking the equipment to Victoria for a flight to Edmonton.

From there, RCMP officers took over and got the gear to its destination in Kinnigait.

It took about eight months from Cook’s initial idea for the equipment to finally reach it’s destination and less than an hour for the equipment to be handed out to the eager youth of the community.

Now serving in Nunavut’s capital of Iqaluit, Cook was back in Kinnigait on March 10 with his fiancé to drop off the equipment at the local RCMP detachment.

“We put a little radio announcement out, and within half an hour all the gear was gone. Just to see the joy and happiness on the kid’s and youths’ faces and the thanks fullness from the parents that these kids now have the gear to play Canada’s game was absolutely amazing.”

He said around 30 kids benefited from the donation of the gear.

Cook also started a non-profit hockey league during his time as a Mariner, using skills learned during his time there to help the kids up in Nunavut learn more about the game of hockey.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow