Parry Sound Shamrocks weigh in for food bank before competing at Bell Capital Cup

Friday, January 04, 2013

Parry Sound, ON: -  The Parry Sound Shamrocks Major Peewee A team had to work a little harder this season to be worth their weight, but it motivated the team to give back.

And so, hockey in Parry Sound, originally famous for being the home team of the great Bobby Orr, is now turning heads for a different reason.

For the second year in a row, coach Tim McWhirter “weighed all our kids and challenged kids and parents to donate that amount of non-perishable food to the local food bank, Harvest Share.”

Their goal was to complete the challenge before competing at the Bell Capital Cup.

“We had two goals. One with just the players that was 1,300 pounds and then the second we added the coaching staff and it bumped it up to 2,000. We didn’t quite make that, but the total weight this year was over 1,200 pounds,” he said.

In two years the team has donated nearly 2,500 pounds of non-perishable food.

“Hockey is so much more than just a game,” said McWhirter. “It’s about life lessons and giving back to the community and our team is all about respect, class and character, it’s not just about wins and loses.”

The players took on the challenge, agreeing that giving back to the community — especially at Christmas — is what counts.

“It’s really important for us to get involved to help local people and charities that can’t afford food around this time and need the food to live,” said Seth Norman, 12.

Michael Evans, 12, added: “I thought it was going to be a hard challenge because it was going to be a lot of food.”

Cole Willis, 12, agreed: “We have a lot of kids on our team and it all adds up so it was a lot of food to collect.”

Jayden Blower, also 12, said: “Once we added up all our weight we really wanted to match that same weight. It took a lot of time and carrying it all was heavy.”

Jayden’s mom, Shelley, said the parents were very proud of their children.

“They may go and do some serving at the food bank and some of them did a food drive with the fire department on top of this.” she said. “They always wear their jerseys.”

The hardest part of the challenge? “Lifting all the food in and out of trucks!” said the boys.

They plan to do a food drive again next year.

WRITTEN BY LEAH LAROCQUE, SPECIAL TO THE SUN

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