It's always a dilemma what to do with outgrown hockey equipment. Kids can grow so fast, shin pads, skates and pants can become too small within a season. Gloves and shoulder pads seem to hang in longer.
I used swap outgrown stuff for a discount on bigger used stuff at a local store in London, which started with an accent on used gear. But over the years, outside of skates, the store's interest in used stuff seemed to fade and the prices between buying new and used narrowed. Credit to Chinese manufacturing mills, I guess.
During the summer, London hosted a used hockey gear giveaway/swap, which was an excellent, community-minded idea.
Donating the gear, with the exception of skates, to a charity seems ineffective as the people spending big bucks to enrol their child in minor hockey are unlikely to be same people who hunt for gear at Goodwill, Salvation Army or St. Vincent de Paul. I suspect hockey equipment is not wanted at these stores because it doesn't move, although volunteers are too polite to say so.
The perfect solution comes with people such as Linda Grainger.
Her son, Derek, played minor hockey with the same organization as my son, the West London Hawks. Derek and his girlfriend, Brandy Dobbin, who played minor hockey in the Oil Springs area, are now teachers working in the remote Northern Ontario community of Pikangikum
Linda has become a sort of southwestern Ontario godmother to the kids of Pikangikum, an impoverished mostly Native community. When Derek and Brandy decided they'd like to organize hockey teams for kids in their school, Linda rolled up her sleeves.
Through various means, including scouring Kijiji, she sourced 22 hockey bags worth of gentled used equipment. My son, Adam, and I rounded up various sizes of shoulder pads, shin pads, elbow pads and pants. Others donated similar items, including helmets which were meticulously checked for expiry dates by Linda's husband.
The next challenge was transporting the gear, bulky as you might imagine, to the far reaches of Ontario.
Linda won the co-operation of AMJ Campbell Van Lines which agreed to take the equipment from their London depot to Thunder Bay.From there, Courtesy Transportation took the gear to Red Lake. From Red Lake, they passed it to Superior Airways for the final leg to Pikangikum - at no charge.
The end result: Enough hockey gear to outfit two complete kids teams in Pikangikum. Derek is setting up a boys' grades 5 and 7 team; Brandy is leading a girls' grades 5 and 6 team.
The effort to collect sports gear, not just hockey equipment, for the kids in Pikangikum doesn't end with this successful first shipment.
Linda continues to collect equipment (and financial donations to help cover packing and shipping costs) with the aim of sending more gear at Christmas.
If you have used stuff to donate, please contact Linda by email at linda.grainger@sympatico.ca.
I used swap outgrown stuff for a discount on bigger used stuff at a local store in London, which started with an accent on used gear. But over the years, outside of skates, the store's interest in used stuff seemed to fade and the prices between buying new and used narrowed. Credit to Chinese manufacturing mills, I guess.
During the summer, London hosted a used hockey gear giveaway/swap, which was an excellent, community-minded idea.
Donating the gear, with the exception of skates, to a charity seems ineffective as the people spending big bucks to enrol their child in minor hockey are unlikely to be same people who hunt for gear at Goodwill, Salvation Army or St. Vincent de Paul. I suspect hockey equipment is not wanted at these stores because it doesn't move, although volunteers are too polite to say so.
The perfect solution comes with people such as Linda Grainger.
Her son, Derek, played minor hockey with the same organization as my son, the West London Hawks. Derek and his girlfriend, Brandy Dobbin, who played minor hockey in the Oil Springs area, are now teachers working in the remote Northern Ontario community of Pikangikum
Linda has become a sort of southwestern Ontario godmother to the kids of Pikangikum, an impoverished mostly Native community. When Derek and Brandy decided they'd like to organize hockey teams for kids in their school, Linda rolled up her sleeves.
Through various means, including scouring Kijiji, she sourced 22 hockey bags worth of gentled used equipment. My son, Adam, and I rounded up various sizes of shoulder pads, shin pads, elbow pads and pants. Others donated similar items, including helmets which were meticulously checked for expiry dates by Linda's husband.
The next challenge was transporting the gear, bulky as you might imagine, to the far reaches of Ontario.
Linda won the co-operation of AMJ Campbell Van Lines which agreed to take the equipment from their London depot to Thunder Bay.From there, Courtesy Transportation took the gear to Red Lake. From Red Lake, they passed it to Superior Airways for the final leg to Pikangikum - at no charge.
The end result: Enough hockey gear to outfit two complete kids teams in Pikangikum. Derek is setting up a boys' grades 5 and 7 team; Brandy is leading a girls' grades 5 and 6 team.
The effort to collect sports gear, not just hockey equipment, for the kids in Pikangikum doesn't end with this successful first shipment.
Linda continues to collect equipment (and financial donations to help cover packing and shipping costs) with the aim of sending more gear at Christmas.
If you have used stuff to donate, please contact Linda by email at linda.grainger@sympatico.ca.
