A group of Spirit of Burns Lake players take time out during practice to pose for a photo. (Courtesy of Spirit of Burns Lake)

After leaving an abusive home to live on the streets 11 years ago at the age of 17, Shannon Alec began a slide into alcoholism and drug addiction.

A teen who had been a self-described "goody-goody" and honour roll student, "I was an addict for five years," Alec says, in a matter-of-fact tone.

It's a story she's told too many times to count, and one she's working to keep others from having to live through.

So she has hearkened back to one of the bright spots from her youth, one season playing hockey, and started a league of her own to help others.

Now 28 and a youth counsellor who's been clean for more than a year, Alec and two friends have founded Spirit of Burns Lake, a girls hockey league that's free of cost in every way. The goal is to make hockey possible for girls of all ages who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it.

"I think it's given these girls a chance," Alec says. "When I was playing hockey, it was the best thing in the world, and I know it really helped me. It's a really good feeling to be able to share that because it's so expensive to play, and I know all these other girls are now saying, 'I play hockey.'

"That alone empowers them."

Alec teamed up with Rosalie MacDonald and Loretta Charlie last year to start Spirit of Burns Lake in the village of 2,000 located 225 kilometres west of Prince George. Fifteen girls signed up.

The league now boasts more than 50 players ranging in age from six to 60, who show up at the local rink every Sunday for an hour and a half of ice time.

"They're all over the map, but they all love it," Alec says. "We have a lady who's never skated in her life from Purdue, who's 30; we have kids who are learning at a really young age.

"I made it so that every single woman in Burns Lake can play on our team, no matter what, despite age, money and race."

In other words, despite everything that has held girls back in the past.

"Me and Rosalie, we grew up on the res. We're two native chicks that just couldn't afford to play hockey," Alec explains. "I did play hockey for a year on my school team, but after the season was over, my coach told me I couldn't play because I didn't pay my tuition fee.

"That broke my heart, because I loved it. I never felt so free. It felt like I didn't have to think about all the stuff a 16-year-old would have to think about."

Four years ago, when she started down the long road to beating her drug and alcohol addiction, Alec voiced the idea of starting up a free girl's hockey league in the village. Soon after she and MacDonald started raising money and support to make it happen.

"It was an idea. We never ever thought it would go this far," Alec says.

It's been made possible through the help of more than 17 organizations — the Bell Community Sport Fund and Canadian True Sport Foundation, Northern Health, National Hockey League Players' Association and the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport are among them — that have given either equipment or financial assistance.

This season, the NHLPA's Goals and Dreams Fund provided $10,000 worth of equipment to the Burns Lake women.

"It's just a great cause," said Devin Smith, chairman of the NHLPA fund. "The guidelines, the structure, empowering women, as I think they say. It's an amazing way to contribute through the game of hockey."

The NHLPA's assistance provided the girls with 22 full sets of equipment. Now that they have enough protective gear for every player, they no longer have to play using a glove instead of a puck.

It's a game, but Alec stresses Spirit of Burns Lake is about more than hockey.

She measures the success through the increased fitness among women in the village, the friendships they build, "the smiles on their faces when they're playing," and the "decreased drug and alcohol abuse in the community," she said.

"Drugs and alcohol here, it's super common. I see it all the time. My brother got into booze; I was really bad on the streets. It was because of our upbringing."

Alec points out the downward spiral started when she stopped playing hockey. Her hope is that a league like Spirit of Burns Lake prevents other girls from going down the troubled road she did. It's why she shares her story, as a youth and family counsellor, and whenever anyone asks.

Often, that happens when the Spirit of Burns Lake girls are together, either before or after a game of hockey.

"A lot of the youth here go through the same thing I went through," Alec says. "It's quiet because nobody likes to talk about it. I talk about my past with the girls because it helps them to realize they're not alone, and that we're here to help.

"You see the girls on the ice, and they're so happy when they're playing hockey. That's when you know you're making a difference."