Ash Drobot, pictured with one of his four daughters, was the inspiration for the Lloydminster Blazers U13 Female hockey team to enter and win the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup and the $100,000 they donated to Inclusion Lloydminster to make the city’s new Lloydminster Place event centre accessible to everyone. His daughter Maddison, who plays for the Blazers, told the team her dad was unable to time keep on the bench in a wheelchair. The rest is history with the cup presented at the Russ Robertson Arena on Good Friday. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
The Lloydminster U13 Female Blazers will be back in the spotlight soon for Inclusion Lloydminster’s annual fundraising breakfast.
The girls are invited to assist as table captains at Inclusion Lloydminster’s annual fundraising breakfast at the Stockade Convention Centre on May 5 to the delight of the organization’s board president, Tami Smith.
“That’s going to be fantastic,” said Smith.
The news follows the Blazers’ $100,000 donation to the local non-profit at the Russ Robertson Arena on Good Friday as the grand prize for winning the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup.
“They are incredibly inspiring, especially for such young girls—this vision of theirs, having an inclusive rink, and they’re really making it happen,” said Smith.
Inclusion Lloydminster will use the funds to work with a local committee to create a barrier-free para-ice hockey rink for players, volunteers and fans at the new Lloydminster Place event centre.
“Part of living an inclusive life is being able to be where everybody else is, so you can live your life,” said Smith.
“The fact the players are working on making our new rink fully accessible is amazing.”
The Blazer’s Rose Tindall, whose dad, Justin, is the head coach, says it was a great learning experience with the cup presentation taking her by surprise.
“I just thought they were going to tell us we were top three, but we won!” she exclaimed.
“I’m really excited because we learned so much about accessible rinks and how we can make them more accessible, so I’m really happy that we could actually make that come true.”
Their deed caught the attention of Ross Ulmer at Ulmer Chevrolet Cadillac, who matched the $100,000 grand prize with a donation to Inclusion Canada to make a national impact.
“What’s amazing is these very young girls, instead of just having a bottle drive or something, went out and did something that is impacting lives,” said Ulmer.
The Blazers were officially named the winner during Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast.
They are the first all-girls team to win the cup in its six-year history and they did it by generating the most votes in Canada.
“Well, I just think we were really lucky because we had the community to back us up. Now, having an accessible rink can’t be a dream, it can be a reality,” said young Rose.
The team also competed in the national programs against 11 other teams and became a regional finalist after entering the competition earlier this year.
Their submission came after learning a team parent Ash Drobot couldn’t access the box to time keep at their arena.
Following this, the girls hosted an inclusive sledge hockey event and advocated for a barrier-free bi-provincial para-ice hockey arena.
The cup presentation was emotional for Drobot who is a proud parent of four hockey-playing girls.
His daughter Maddison on the Blazers sparked the project by noting local rinks are not accessible to people like her dad who want to help out.
“It’s amazing to see them what they’ve done and it’s going to last a long time. It’s pretty cool,” said Drobot while fighting back tears of joy.
He says people know anyone in a wheelchair needs an elevator to get upstairs, but they may not know a bar in front of them is the way in the stands or a dressing room is not accessible, for example.
“Those are the things these kids are picking up on that will make a big difference,” said Drobot.
Elyssa Dunbar, the Blazers assistant coach says she is really proud of what the team has done.
“It’s an amazing thing they’ve done at such a young age and I’m very excited to see what they do in their futures,” she said.
Dunbar says it’s going to be amazing for the new rink to be accessible for everyone to be involved in whatever they want to do there.
“It will be an awesome opportunity for Ash to be able to get into the box and time keep and be a part of what his kids are doing,” she added.
The cup presentation was led by the national broadcaster, Anthony Stewart, with words of congratulations from Olympic women’s hockey gold medalists, Caroline Ouellette and Sarah Nurse, Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers and Chevrolet Canada rep, George Saratlic.
