Sky’s The Limit for Canadian kids who are blind or visually impaired learning to skate and even play hockey

Blind and visually-impaired Canadian youth from coast to coast are getting the equal opportunity to strap on skates this winter thanks to Courage Canada Hockey for the Blind and their national non-profit key partners – AMI – Accessible Media and CNIB .

This year, over 200 blind and visually-impaired youth from 13 different regions from Halifax to Victoria are participating in learn to skate and blind hockey program thanks to Courage Canada, a national registered charity founded only three years ago by 24 year-old blind hockey player and Toronto native Mark DeMontis. (couragecanada.ca)

“Roughly half of these kids have never strapped on a pair of skate prior to participating in a Courage Canada program,” said Founder and President DeMontis.  “Most of them are not aware that there are hockey programs for the blind, and that if you are a person who has a visual impairment you too can enjoy ice skating and playing hockey.”

“The sport of blind hockey is rapidly growing to an all-time high in Canada – just last weekend Courage Canada was proud to support the 2nd annual Canadian Blind Hockey Tournament in Quebec City featuring 34 adult blind hockey players from across the country. All these kids in our learn to skate programs now know that they too have the ability and the opportunity to learn to play hockey.  To me that is the most important thing – providing the opportunity, and Courage Canada is able to fulfill our mission thanks to our key partners at AMI and CNIB.”

Wednesday March 7th 2012 was Courage Canada National Media Day in Toronto where the organization celebrated all national programs with key-partners AMI – Accessible Media (ami.ca) and CNIB (cnib.ca). Featured guests included AMI President & CEO David Errington and CNIB President & CEO John Rafferty.

“AMI’s focus is on making all media accessible to all Canadians, but we also support the ambitions of all individuals and organizations working to build a more inclusive Canada, including Mark DeMontis and Courage Canada,” stated David Errington, President and CEO of Accessible Media Inc. (AMI), adding that, “We have been proud to be Courage Canada’s media sponsor, and to provide coverage on AMI-tv and AMI-audio of DeMontis’ skates across Canada and his organization’s pioneering hockey programs.”

“CNIB is proud to support Courage Canada’s learn to skate and blind hockey programs,” said John Rafferty, CNIB President and CEO. “Learning how to skate and play hockey are rites of passage for Canadian children. Courage Canada helps CNIB carry out its mission by giving kids who are blind or partially sighted the confidence, skills and opportunities to fully participate in these truly Canadian activities.”

Skates and hockey equipment for national programs is graciously donated by Sport Chek’s Power of Sport for Kids (POS4K) Program.

Courage Canada has more than doubled the number of participants in its programs in each of its first 3 years of existence, and hopes to continue expanding its fundraising and corporate sponsorship to eventually allow all Canadians who are blind or visually impaired the opportunity to learn to skate and play blind hockey.

For more information contact Stephen Murdoch at smurdoch@enterprisecanada.com or by phone 289-241-3997.

QUEBEC – In March 2012, Blind and visually impaired hockey players from across Canada will be taking part in the second annual Canadian Blind Hockey Tournament supported by Courage Canada Hockey for the Blind.  Players will be divided into team AMI -  Accessible Media Inc. (Yellow) and Team CNIB (Black) and play a 3 game series at the Challenge Hivernal in Quebec.

Friday March 2^nd
Kick off Banquet / Team Roster Announcement – 19:00 – 21:00 hrs at Le Postino – Bistro-Bar, 296, rue Saint-Joseph Est, Quebec city, QC, G1K 3A9

Saturday March 3^rd
Marquee: Game 1 – 10:00AM – 11:00AM
Game 2 – 5:00PM – 6:00PM

Val-Belair 2 glaces arena
1515, rue de l’Innovation, Quebec City, QC, G3K 2P9

Les députées fédérales suivantes donnent leur chaleureux appui à l’évènement: Mmes Alexandrine Latendresse, circonscription de Louis-Saint-Laurent; Élaine Michaud, circonscription de Portneuf─Jacques-Cartier et Annick Papillon, circonscription de Québec.

The following members of Parliament have given their warm support to the event:
Ms Alexandrine Latendresse, riding of Louis-Saint-Laurent; Ms Élaine Michaud, ridning of Portneuf─Jacques-Cartier et Ms Annick Papillon, riding of Québec.

Info:

Log on to www.couragecanada.ca and donate a tax deductible gift of $20.12 cents to help make hockey accessible for one blind or visually-impaired child this 2012 season.  Funds raised will go directly towards covering the costs of ice-rental, skates, equipment, transportation, instructors and more.

Tetley surprises founder of skating program for the blind.

Friday morning we awoke bright and early and drove to the head offices of
our lead sponsor Accessible Media Inc. for a very special meet and greet.
Roughly a dozen students with visual impairments from the Toronto District
School Board had traveled in along with their vision teachers to speak with
Mark on the second last day of his journey, and have a behind the scenes
tour of the AMI offices.

Mark spoke to the group, most of whom had been part of a 2011 Courage Canada
Learn to Skate program and will be on the ice with us again in 2012, and
there were even a couple of aspiring Toronto Ice Owls in the group!  Besides
being our lead campaign sponsor, AMI has also produced a fantastic series of
audio described video updates showcasing the campaign, as their goal is to
make media accessible to all Canadians through accessible programming on
their television station TACtv and their audio broadcasting through
Voiceprint.  The students were treated to a tour the studios and were even
able to record their own demo.

Once the students went on their tour, AMI CEO David Errington introduced
Mark to his staff, and Mark spoke to the group about the campaign, his
story, and Courage Canada.  It was a very memorable morning, thanks again to
David and AMI for all that you have done and continue to do in support of
Courage Canada, we really appreciate the support!

We soon need to depart as Mark was doing a live interview with CTV Toronto
in the early afternoon.  So we said goodbye to the students, teachers and
staff at AMI, grabbed a quick lunch and took Mark to his interview.  He was
asked about the campaign, Courage Canada, and the sport of blind hockey and
had the opportunity to explain the sport and the many opportunities for
Canadians who are visually impaired to play hockey to a large viewership
which was great.

After the interview the rain had actually died down and the sun started to
peak out in the late afternoon which was great news as we still a good day
of skating we needed to get done to ensure we’d be at Weston Arena on
Saturday on time.  Mark and Cam hopped out in the far east end of
Scarborough, and made their way down the sidewalks of Lawrence Ave. through
Scarborough, over the DVP, and through the luxurious Bridle Path
neighbourhood where we soon after stopped for the day.

We were now officially in the heart of Toronto, leaving just over 10
kilometers left for the trek, but that would have to wait for Saturday
morning. We drove to a spot near Don Mills and Lawrence Ave. where we had
arranged to stay in the RV for one last night, had dinner, and bunked for
last night of the campaign.

On Saturday morning we woke up to surprisingly decent weather. They had been
predicting heavy rain and very strong winds which would have been
reminiscent of the final day of the 2009 Courage Canada Quest to the West
Campaign in Vancouver.  Instead it was grey, cool, and little gusty but the
rain held off and left us with a good morning for a final skate.

Cam had arranged for his friend John Flood to drive the RV so that the whole
team could skate the final leg of the campaign (Thanks very much!).  Mark,
Cam, Matt, and Phil all headed out at our starting point and skated the 10
kilometers into Weston in our Courage Canada jerseys, full reebok gear, with
our hockey sticks, and Mark leading us with a Canadian flag.

We made good time and arrived in Weston with 20 minutes to spare which
allowed us time to skate to skate around Mark, Cam and Phil’s hometown.  We
skated past Cam’s house, past the house where Cam grew up, over to Mark’s
house, and through the elementary school where Mark and Cam first became
friends.  We skated over train tracks, through the Weston farmers market, to
the world famous Peter’s Barber Shop where so many leafs have gotten their
hair cut; we skated down Weston road, around the corner, and finally we
skated to Weston Lions Arena where Mark and the boys had played their minor
hockey and continue to play as adults with a love for the game.

In 2009 Mark, Cam, PJ, and Jason had left from Weston Lions Arena on the
original Courage Canada Quest to the West in-line skate to Vancouver, and
now 2 years later Mark led Cam, Matt and Phil back to the arena to finish
the Courage Canada Halifax 2 Toronto campaign and to complete the journey
across the mainland of Canada.  We rounded the corner and were greeted by a
group of dozens of people cheering us on as we skated by the front doors,
then we skated around the building to the zamboni entrance where Mark led
the team into the arena onto a red carpet on the ice and across the official
finish line.

The red carpet was lined with budding hockey stars from the Weston Minor
Hockey Association, as well as Matt’s parents Rob and Wendy, Cam’s parents
Terry and Margaret, and finally Mark’s parent’s Massimo and Sandy who held
the official finish line, and along with Mark’s brother Luca, welcomed him
home.  The arena was packed with 100′s of family, friends, and community
members who had come out to show their support for Mark and Courage Canada,
as well as members of the Toronto Ice Owls and Montreal Hiboux Blind Hockey
Teams who reminded us what this is all about – the love of Canada’s great
game of hockey, and the right of every single one of us to participate in
it!

Luca had done an excellent job on the arrival, and after a rousing rendition
of O’Canada Mark spoke to the crowd.  Mark spoke at length about the journey
and the importance of all the support he had received, he spoke about blind
hockey and the future of this great game in Canada.  Mark thanked his team
for supporting him throughout his journey, he thanked his sponsors for
helping make it happen, and he thanked everyone – including all of you who
read this blog – for your continued support of Courage Canada!  We can’t do
this alone and thank you all very much.

After his speech there were several dignitaries who were there to
congratulate Mark and the team including Leafs greats Johnny Bower and Dick
Duff, AMI CEO David Errington, Team Canada sledge hockey goalie and
paralympic gold medalist Paul Rosen, York South-Weston`s MP Mike Sullivan,
MPP Laura Albanese, and City Councillor Frances Nunziata who all made
special presentations.  Mark and the team were all very honoured – thanks
again for the support.

It was a fantastic ceremony followed by a media scrum, but Mark and the team
had to quickly head to the dressing room and put on their hockey gear for
the blind hockey demonstration game.  What better way to end a Courage
Canada campaign for the sport of blind hockey than with a demonstration of
the great game, so members of the Toronto Ice Owls and Montreal Hiboux were
divided on teams interspersed with many of Mark’s sighted friends, and we
played a thrilling modified blind hockey game that ended 2 – 1 for team
yellow in a shootout.

The arrival was a huge success – thank you very much to the Weston Lions
Arena for hosting it, to all the dignitaries who spoke so highly of Mark and
the cause, to all the blind hockey players, to Luca for organizing it, and
to all of the family, friends and Courage Canada supporters who came out to
make the event successful – we could not have done it without you!

While the arrival festivities may have been over our hectic arrival day was
not, and we had no time to relax as the Toronto Maple Leafs were doing a
feature on Mark and the campaign at their game against Calgary that evening.
Mark and Cam quickly traded their hockey gear for formal wear and rushed
downtown for a live interview with CBC.
Afterwards they were welcomed to the Air Canada Centre and provided
fantastic seats right behind the leafs bench, were invited into the
Directors lounge, and then Mark was interviewed during the first
intermission to the delight of family, friends, and the rest of the team who
were also at the game.  After already being welcomed by the Montreal
Canadians and the Ottawa Senators on the campaign, it was a great way to end
the journey being featured by the hometown Leafs who also provided a great
game with a thrilling 3 – 2 comeback win over the Calgary Flames.

As the Courage Canada Halifax 2 Toronto Campaign is now officially over this
will be the last entry of the campaign blog, however now the exciting work
begins.  With your generous support, and the support of our partners and
sponsors we are switching gears and we’ll be hitting the ground running as
we find ourselves already at the beginning of the 2011 – 2012 hockey season.
We have big plans for this year with learn to skate programs for youth who
are blind or visually impaired scheduled coast to coast, and a blind hockey
tournament to plan to showcase this great sport among many other special
presentations.
While the campaign may now be over, the Courage Canada movement is just
beginning to pick up steam so be sure to check back to www.couragecanada.ca
regularly for updates and stay involved.  It’s been a wild ride over the
last couple of months, and a very successful journey.  Thanks for
everything, and as always…

Stay tuned…

On Wednesday we awoke in the pouring rain but figured since we were camping 45 km from our start point we might as well drive to our marker and see what the weather was like closer to the 401.  It turned out to be a good decision as we soon drove out of the deluge and had reasonable skating weather from the get go.

Mark had a very difficult morning, after many days of skating in a row since our last break in Ottawa his body was worn down and his spirits were low.  Adding to his misery the Lakeshore Road had turned to a very rural, very rough road that made every stride difficult.  We took a mid-morning break and re-examined all options, and ultimately decided to cut back to the north side of the 401 where we found much better road.

Despite feeling worn down, Mark knew how close we were getting to the finish line and how tight the time frame was getting, and toughed it out and pushed on to skate a very good distance with Cam for the morning session into Bowmanville.  We only took a quick break as we knew it was supposed to start raining in the early evening, and after a quick bike Mark and Matt hopped out and continued skating on a bike trail through Bowmanville and then back out through country roads, and across the 401 for the final time to the south side where we cruised through Darlington Provincial Park to the outskirts of Oshawa where we called it a day.

Despite feeling worn early on, Mark managed to battle through and put in a very solid day to get us to our destination.  Wednesday we got inside the final 100 kilometers to Weston Lions Arena which is definitely a cause for celebration and yet another marker showing that the trip is coming to an end.

The Oshawa Best Western was kind enough to sponsor us with 2 nights accommodation, and invited us for a spaghetti dinner as part of their guest appreciation night – thanks very much for the support!

On Thursday we again awoke to rain but waited it out until 10:30 am and we were rewarded with clear skies and even some sun.  Mark and Cam strapped up to get us started for the last full skating day for the campaign, and Mark was feeling much more energized this morning knowing we were on the outskirts of Toronto.

We wove along the Lakeshore Bike Trail that followed the shore of Lake Ontario and provided fantastic views as we travelled through Oshawa, Ajax, and Pickering until we finally crossed into Scarborough and officially entered the GTA.  It was a fantastic skate from the outskirts of Oshawa to the end of Lawrence Avenue, and the familiar sights of the TTC buses and the City of Toronto emblem on various signs made the team feel like we were truly home.

Since we were in Scarborough we were able to stop by Matt’s grandparents house to say hi which was a great surprise visit.  Matt’s Nan has only recently purchased a computer and has been enjoying following the campaign through this blog – so she was very excited to meet Mark and paraded him around to her neighbours.

We had to cut our visit short as were invited to dinner by the North Oshawa Lions Club.  The Lions made the team a nice dinner, and then Mark spoke about his story, the campaign, and Courage Canada and the Lions made a generous donation to support the cause – thank you very much it was a wonderful evening.

We returned to the Oshawa Best Western where we again had our room sponsored for the night, and did some work but headed to bed early with a big day tomorrow.  Mark and the team will be up bright and early heading to our lead sponsor Accessible Media Inc’s offices where we will be doing an event with their staff and students who are visually impaired from the Toronto District School Board.

The Toronto media has really started to pick up on the story and Mark is also swamped with interview requests so look for him on the news, and then we will have to get to some skating in the late afternoon so we are all set for Saturday’s arrival at noon at the Weston Lions Arena.  It’s been a busy 48 hours, and the next 48 promise to be even busier as we wrap up the Courage Canada Halifax 2 Toronto Campaign.

Stay tuned…

On Monday we awoke to more blue skies and sunshine, so we drove to our marker bright and early so that Mark and Cam could take advantage of the weather and have a good morning skate.  Mark was feeling better this morning than Sunday, and he put in the morning session in good time and took us to the outskirts of Trenton where we braked for lunch.

Since it was Thanksgiving Monday the schools were closed, so while Mark rested and prepared for the afternoon session the rest of the team was able to unwind by playing basketball on a school yard.  It was a beautiful day to spend the afternoon outside!

Once this unseasonably warm weather started to cool, Mark and Matt set out for the afternoon session, again winding through farmer’s fields, through small towns, and ultimately to Brighton where we called it a day.

As it is getting very late in the season we are having more and more difficulty finding campgrounds that are still open, however we were lucky Monday with a nice spot not too far from where we had left off. We headed to the campground, BBQ’d some chicken and called it a night.

On Tuesday we awoke to what they are predicting will possibly be the last sunny day of the trip, so Mark and Cam hopped on the road where we’d left off and put in a really good morning in great time.  Mark was feeling even better, and we had good smooth pavement with lots of decline to start the day.

We are now close enough to Toronto that there is always a community nearby during our afternoon break and today was no exception, as we had lunch on the lakeshore in Cobourg and walked around the area as we took our break.

No sooner than 2 km after we started the afternoon we ran into yet another route problem – our recommended route that we had ended the morning session on suddenly became quite busy after Coburg, and with no paved shoulder was deemed unsafe to skate.  After some more quick scrambling, we were able to find an alternate route that paralleled the Highway within 10 meters at points, and seeing the road signs really made us feel we were close to home.

At Port Perry we crossed to the south side of the 401 for the 1st time, and headed down Lakeshore Road as we paralleled the lake itself.  A couple kilometers out of town we called it a day, set our marker, and then had to drive almost 45 km north to the only campsite we could find that was still open in the region on Rice Lake.  RIce Lake was the first place Mark ever went camping as a child, and it was funny we were camping on Rice Lake for the last camping night of the trip – small world indeed!

We determined it was most likely our last night in a campsite for the trip, and made sausage pasta, reflected on the trip so far, watched a movie and called it a night.  We have seen dozens of phenomenal campsites all across the eastern part of the country, and have experienced some truly phenomenal views on this campaign, but tomorrow we head out of the countryside, into Oshawa on the outskirts of the GTA, and will be skating through mostly urban areas the rest of the way home.

See you all Saturday.

Stay tuned….

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We have had another 2 good days of skating and realize we have so much to be thankful for on this campaign, with great weather and excellent support from family, friends, sponsors, and the many communities we have skated through in this great country of ours. Thank you all very much, and we hope you had a great holiday weekend.

On Saturday we awoke to yet another beautiful day, and Mark and Cam strapped up just outside of Verona on a good stretch of highway for the morning skate.  As we get closer to home Mark is finding his body is getting more tired each day, and he had a difficult skate but soldiered through and made it to just outside of Napanee for the morning.

We broke for lunch where we found out our friend Brian Cooper had arranged for us to go to the Belleville Bulls vs Kingston Frontenacs game that evening, so we had a quick midday break and had to get back out on the road.  After a good lunch Mark was feeling refreshed and he Matt, and Phil hopped out for the afternoon session.  Our route planning continued to take us through empty remote farm roads, and Saturday afternoon was no different as we were a curiosity with people greeting us asking what we were doing, mentioning they very rarely see people, and telling us we were in fact in the “boonies.”

After a solid afternoon skate it was becoming dusk, and we drove to the arena to watch the Bulls beat the Frontenacs 3 – 0. It was a great game, and the Bulls played a message on the screen welcoming Mark and the team to Belleville.  After the game we went to the Cooper families house where they were nicely putting us up for the night, and we were able to relax, eat some food, and watch the Calgary Flames play the Pittsburgh Penguins – it’s great to have hockey back!

On Sunday morning Mark was invited to come out to Brian’s son Brandon’s hockey practice to speak to the team and skate around with them for bit, so Mark and Cam took their ice skates and headed out o the arena.  They thoroughly enjoyed themselves and being on the ice with kids just learning the basics of hockey is another reminder of what this campaign is all about.  After the morning skate we were treated to large home-cooked breakfast at the Coopers which provided us the energy to get on our way.  Thank you very much for everything you really made our Thanksgiving weekend!

It was a beautiful Thanksgiving Sunday, and was actually a little too hot with the sun beating down on us, and complicating matters the pavement on our farm road had quickly deteriorated.  Mark had a very tough morning skate, and was extra tired from getting up early for the practice, but he managed to tough it out and get the morning session in.  We had a good midday break and nap, and Mark came out energized and had a fantastic afternoon taking us through Belleville and slightly passed our goal for the day.

We called it a night and had a nice Thanksgiving dinner together, and while we can’t be with our families we are looking forward to getting home in 1 weeks time.  From here on out there will be no days off to ensure that we will get to the arrival on time next Saturday.  Off to Brighton tomorrow.

Stay tuned….

Over the last 1500 km or so we have had great fortune finding safe, suitable skating routes that more or less paralleled major highways and took us from point A to point B on our way home.  On Thursday our luck ran out.

For most of the skate biking directions have been instrumental to helping us plan the best routes, however the big risk is when the biking directions turn out to be gravel trails which are not conducive to inline skating.  Ontario seems to have created some fantastic looking gravel bike trails in this region, but they are unfortunately no use to us, and Highway 7 has absolutely no shoulder for the most part making it unsafe to skate.

Normally when we have encountered this situation we have been able to find less travelled roads that parallel  the highway.  However, we discovered through a frustrating day of trial and error that largely due to the incredible amount of lakes sprinkled along the highway in this region there are very few roads that run close to the road.  Complicating things further, every road that we explored in the area turned to gravel within a couple of kilometers. With the day wasting away with little skating being done, and the timeline tightening up as we approach one week to our arrival, we made the tough call to sit down and plan a new route.

After some research it seems like there are many more road options closer to the 401, so we decided to turn down Highway 6 and skate diagonally across the map, south westwards towards home.  With sunlight wasting away, and our route now established, we decided to end the skate for the day, run several errands, and head back to our campsite outside of Perth.

The new route means we will no longer be skating through communities along the 7 – such as Maddox and Peterborough which is a shame, however we are are excited to be skating through a different set of communities that straddle the 401 such as Belleville, Oshawa and Pickering.  Our new route sees us in Verona on Friday, Napanee on Saturday, Belleville on Sunday, Coburg on Monday, we will be skating to Oshawa on Tuesday, Whitby on Wednesday, Pickering on Thursday, to the AMI head offices at Don Mills and Lawrence in Toronto on Friday, and finally home to Weston Lions Arena on Saturday October 15th.

We capped off a frustrating Thursday by watching the hometown Leafs beat the Habs in the 2011 – 2012 season opener, and got a good night’s sleep knowing we had our route settled and a renewed sense of purpose with the hockey season officially underway.

Friday morning we awoke and headed to Tim Horton’s for a good breakfast before embarking on an epic skate that would take us through rural back roads, beside remote farmlands, south towards a friendlier inline skate route.  We skated past countless horses and cows, several donkeys, some miniature ponies, and even a couple herds of yaks – bizarre creatures that look like hairy cows and have horns.

Mark did the morning shift with Cam, and then skated the afternoon with Matt, and put in a great skate all the way down into Verona.  It was a big day of skating and we headed to the Desert Lake Resort campground who nicely sponsored our night’s accommodation, where we BBQ’s some salmon, did some work and called it a night.

It’s been a tumultuous 48 hours, but we believe we have found a solution to our conundrum, and are again back on track skating home.

Stay tuned….

After such a highly successful and busy 4 days in Ottawa, Wednesday morning saw us return to the road with the sole focus of skating for the official last leg of the trip home to Weston.

While Mark and the team were tired from our especially jam packed Tuesday, we had to get in 45 kilometers for the day to get to Perth and remain on schedule.  After driving to Stittsville where we had stopped on Monday, Mark and Cam hopped out on some fairly smooth farm roads that paralleled Highway 7, and ultimately wove their way through the outskirts of Carleton Place, then along some small cottage country lakes, and finally more farms again where we stopped for lunch.

We drove to the nearest Tim Horton’s to refuel, purchased some groceries to keep us going, and then got right back out on the road as we had a bit of a late start to the day.  This time Mark and Matt hopped out, and found a nearly deserted yet perfectly smooth farm road that again paralleled Highway 7, and took us past horses, cows, a flock of sheep, and even a donkey.

It was beautiful crisp fall Ontario day, with the sun shinning throughout, and provided a great skate to get us going on our way.  We reached our destination of Perth in the early evening, and left our marker for the day and called it a night.

With the arrival only 12 days away, the team, our family and friends are all getting very excited and there is a lot of preparation work to be done at night.  Mark’s brother Luca has now returned home to Toronto and he is the event planner for our arrival at Weston Lions Arena at noon on Saturday October 15th.  Speaking of the Courage Canada Homecoming event, if you are anywhere near the GTA come on down and help us conclude this journey right!  The event will feature the team skating into the arena, a speech from Mark, live music, and a special hockey game featuring members of the Toronto Ice Owls and Les Hiboux de Montreal blind hockey teams, and much more.

Check out the event details and RSVP on facebook, see you there.

Stay tuned…