SAULT STE. MARIE—Fourteen-year-old Everett Webkamigad, a Wikwemikong band member who lives in Sault Ste. Marie, was invited to play in an Elite AAA hockey tournament in Las Vegas in July 2016 at just 13 years of age, fresh from a successful season as one of the defensemen on his AA Bantam Minor team Sports Gold Rush, which won the Northern Ontario Hockey Association Playdowns last season.
“Everett was gearing up for summer vacation and graduation from Grade 8, and as a family we were celebrating with a vacation to Las Vegas at the end of May,” explained proud mom Elizabeth Edgar-Webkamigad. “We extended the invitation to one of his growing up buddies and former hockey teammates to travel with us for company and celebration of his Grade 8 grad as well. Everett, Ryan (his buddy) and our family had a great trip. At the beginning of our trip, Ryan’s mom let us know about the potential trip back to Las Vegas in three weeks for Ryan to play hockey and extended an invite for Everett to come watch. We said we would love that and planned for Everett to go and check out his buddy and a number of other skaters (all first and second year AAA Bantam level players) from all over Canada and the US play in an Elite tournament known as the Desert Cup.”
“By the end of our family vacation, an invitation to watch became an invitation to play,” Ms. Edgar-Webkamigad continued. “We scrambled as a family in fundraising efforts and with the help of family, friends and community members out in ‘Indian country,’ along with our home community of Wikwemikong, we were able to fundraise enough funds (including the funds received from Wiky in support of Everett) to cover all of Everett’s participant fees, travel costs and hotel costs. Thankfully, Brad (Everett’s dad) and I were both able to join Everett (we both still had enough vacation time left and a few weeks to come up with our travel funds).”
“One of the beautiful parts of this elite tournament has to do with the exposure to the coaching and mentor staff that each player had the chance to experience during the week long event,” Ms. Edgar-Webkamigad added. “Everett got to make friends with players from all across the States and across Canada. Everett played with Team Can-Am and was one of two First Nation youth on his team. In the Gold Medal game, they played against Team Canada; Everett played against two other First Nation hockey players who were from Alberta. Overall, this elite event allowed for our son to make new friends, learn some new skills from new resource people/coaches and mentors, and play at an elite level for the sport he has been playing since he was just a toddler. The bonus was winning the Gold Medal, coming from behind and winning in overtime—truly a hockey fan’s dream game!”
“We are very grateful for those who helped us pull off the fundraising we did; we had a raffle and prizes were donated for his raffle, a couple of the powwows we danced at as a family prior to our trip held some blanket dances and then our community supported him directly through a funding opportunity open to community members that meet the criteria,” the hockey mom explained. “This was truly a great way to confirm for Everett how quickly a community comes together. In three short weeks, we were able to make it all happen with the support of everyone.”
