The annual Polar Pond Hockey tournament remains in sight for organizers as preparations build toward reviving the event and adding a climate change educational component at Fisherman’s Wharf, March 11 to 13.
Terry Rowe, chair of the organizing committee, said registration is now open for Northern teams to join and more details will emerge in the coming weeks.
He’s working closely with a group called Leading Change, which is helping to organize the weekend focusing on climate change with European-based Save Pond Hockey.
The partnership will involve hosting professional hockey players who will be in attendance to promote the effects of warming temperatures on polar pond hockey.
Rowe said he’s looking forward to having another fun event that will fundraise for climate change awareness, specifically toward the purchase of an electric ice resurfacing machine for the town.
“We all love hockey and the guys that volunteer, we always fundraise whether it’s the arena or for Brendan Green or minor hockey or whatever the case,” he said.”This gives us a chance and another reason to fundraise for something that’s positive.
He described it as a “huge positive” that there’s an opportunity to “develop some partnerships and attract some bigger sponsors that can afford to bring in some of these athletes to run some of these different programs.”
Tournament weekend, as scheduled, will include minor hockey skills development and competition with opening and registration of the games on March 11.
On March 12, there will be a climate change fair and information booth followed by an alumni dinner that night, where residents can meet yet-to-be named NHL alumni. The location is still to be determined.
Team playoffs and finals are to take place on the March 13, but an alumni all-star game, pitting local skaters against former NHL players, is expected to be the highlight.
A weekend ‘climate change marketplace’ will allow businesses and organizations to share environmental knowledge and practices in a trade fair setting.
While the Polar Pond Hockey organizing committee would have liked to have begun advertising and having tournament details in place, Rowe said there’s been a lot of work around ensuring that public safety measures are lined up and in place first.
Because the event is considered to be a high-intensity activity where Covid-19 could spread, organizers have been wary. The tournament was cancelled last year due to the pandemic and it was shortened in 2020. In 2019, it was cancelled due to warm weather and melting ice.
Save Pond Hockey
The Save Pond Hockey element of the Polar Pond Hockey weekend tournament is expected to be a big draw because it will involve professional athletes promoting climate change awareness. Most of those athletes are yet to be confirmed.
Steve Baynes, CEO and co-founder of Save Pond Hockey, is based in Helsinki, Finland, although he was born and raised in Vancouver. He said he started the organization in 2015 with polar pond hockey friends in the Finnish capital due to climate change harming people’s ability to play.
“We all realized that winters were getting shorter and warmer and less predictable and it was becoming more and more difficult to play our favorite sport, which is pond hockey,” he said. “Since 2015, we’ve been organizing these pond hockey tournaments against climate change, where the idea is that we donate profits from the tournaments to local climate action projects.”
To date, Save Pond Hockey has organized 18 tournaments around Finland and donated 60,000 Euros, or about $80,000 Canadian, toward climate action.
Baynes said he’s looking forward to Hay River being the first Canadian municipality to host the tournament.
“Since day one we wanted this to be a really a global movement and so it’s been really fantastic that this year, finally, we’ve been able to connect with some international partners in Germany and also with (partners) in Canada.”
Ultimately, he wants people to think about climate change in a practical way and how the joy of the sport can be preserved for future generations.
“Hockey has a huge cultural and traditional aspect in Canada and Finland and I think a lot of people want to keep that tradition alive,” he said.
Attracting professional hockey players has not proven much of a challenge, either, Baynes said.
Jari Kurri, Ville Nieminen, Niklas Hagman and Viacheslav Fetisov are among the storied pros who have shown support to date.
“To have them come on board has been quite easy because I think a lot of these players realize and see with their own eyes that winters are really different now compared to when they were kids, growing up in central Finland or wherever,” said Baynes.