Now that all the goals have been scored and the saves have been made, it's time to start thinking about packing up hockey for another season.
If you who live in a community where the team jerseys are not recycled, the end of the season means adding another green or gold or red sweater to the growing pile of jerseys in the basement.
Bryan McGuire had one of those jersey piles in his house. But thanks to some great timing and some terrific volunteer spirit, the hockey jerseys that used to sit on the backs of the McGuire kids in Oakville, Ontario are now on the backs of soccer kids in Uganda.
The idea
McGuire is the President of the Oakville Hornets Girls Hockey Association. He says he was chatting with some friends after one of his own hockey games when he heard about a local used equipment drive which was happening to benefit a children's charity in Africa.
McGuire asked for and received permission to add a used jersey element to the drive. It didn't take long before an excited group of volunteers was busy collecting hockey and soccer jerseys from the local Oakville sports community.
"We ended up with over 400 sweaters for hockey and probably 200 or so soccer uniforms as well," said McGuire.
As the more than 600 jerseys were piling up at the local arena, McGuire says a critical aspect of any equipment or jersey drive showed up completely out of the blue.
"By coincidence, but also, probably meant to be, two Hornets families in Oakville came to the donation, dropped off some items and said "how can we help out?" Between the two of them, we managed to send, not just the Hornets stuff over but all the other stuff that was collected, too," said McGuire.
That's right; the two families combined their financial resources and picked up the tab on the $6,000 shipping price tag. McGuire, by the way, strongly recommends taking care of the storage and shipping logistics before you start your drive because you can't expect the same good fortune he experienced.
The destination
The first-ever Hornets jersey collection event was held in February of 2008. A few months later, the jerseys landed in the arms of the African Youth Ministries in Uganda.
"We sent the jerseys over in July 2008 and then by August, we had pictures of girls in Uganda wearing Hornets jerseys playing soccer," said McGuire.
According to Albert Kunihira of the African Youth Ministries, hundreds of Ugandan children have had a chance to participate in various sports programs wearing the colors of the Oakville Hornets Girl's Hockey Association.
The recap
So if you'd like to start your own used jersey drive, here's a quick recap to help get you started:
- Find a group of organization willing to accept your jersey donations.
- Find a place to store the jerseys.
- Figure out how to ship the jerseys and how much it will cost.
- Set a collection date, organize your volunteers and spread the word.
- Collect the jerseys!
And remember, those jerseys piling up in your basement will help provide the same sporting enjoyment for under-privileged children as they did for your own children.
By the way, if you've put together one of these jersey or equipment drives, please take a moment to share some of your ideas and let us know what worked and what didn't.
I'm sure any advice you can provide to an aspiring used jersey collector will be much appreciated. « Clichés galore! | The Equipment Guy home | If I could change women's hockey »
