Ukrainian Wings

On the weekend of November 30th December 1st, the Wickfest International Hockey tournament for girls U13 age group, was held in Calgary.  Amongst the 25 teams in attendance was the Ukrainian Wings hockey team.  The girls on the team ranged in age from 11 to 13 years of age and came from various regions of Ukraine including the cities of Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kiev and Lviv.  Some of the girls had not been on skates for 2 years since the war started and arenas were destroyed. Sixteen girls along with coaches and chaperones arrived earlier in the week and were taken to Banff, Lake Louise the Calgary Zoo and attended a hockey game at the Saddle Dome before hitting the ice themselves. The teams were placed into 5 different Divisions with 5 teams in each.  

It came to our attention that many of the girls came completely unprepared for our cold temperatures this week.  As a result we reached out to the team and met them to provide winter coats from the Knights of Columbus Coats for Kids project, Council 7659. In addition to coats we also provided winter mitts and toques and “stuffies”.   Two of the coaches were also in need of adequate winter outerwear, so new coats were purchased for them as well.   

The Ukrainian Wings team won the gold medal in their division which placed them in the final game on Sunday evening.  They put up a valiant fight and displayed a lot of determination in their loss to a Calgary based team by a score of 3-0.   It was an amazing story for these girls who had never played before as a team and travelled around the world to represent their country. They returned home on a flight which took them to Germany, Poland and then busses back to Ukraine.  In some cases back to the front lines.  A total trip of 52 hours.  The cost of the airlines, hotels and meals was completely funded by the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH).