A recent hockey tournament held in the Crowsnest Pass included a special moment.

Four atom teams from Calgary held a tournament in the Crowsnest Pass on November 9th and 10th and wanted to include a Remembrance Day Ceremony before the final two games.

Rick Vanderpol, who is a member of the Coleman Legion, was able to take part in both ceremonies along with Stephen Taylor of the Bellevue Legion.

“They asked us as the legions to go there when they were having their last two games and do a puck drop for them. There were probably around 200 people there including players and parents,” said Vanderpol.

Vanderpol says he was happy in general to see more people in the community.

“The parents were really happy with the ice conditions and that they could actually get ice times. They really liked it. A lot of them went to the mine and went on a tour and also went up to Frank Slide. It's pretty nice when you can get 200 extra people in the community during the wintertime.”

As for the ceremony, Vanderpol says it was a unique opportunity he enjoyed being a part of.

“I loved it. I've been involved with the legion for years. We do a lot of the school talks, which is great and then I also do six different Remembrance Day services in the area and I enjoy all that but this was something odd ball that they called us up for. We had never done this before and they had never had anything done like that before but it went over really well.”

The pregame ceremonies included playing the Last Post and the Rouse and then the kids skated by and gave fist bumps to Vanderpol and Taylor as well.
Vanderpol says the overall experience was great.

“They asked up to come in because it's so close to Remembrance Day. We really enjoyed that and the people there said they had never seen anything like that before. It was nice. There's nothing like Remembrance Day when you can share it with a few kids and talk to them a little bit. It was really a good experience. The other fellow who was helping me from Bellevue, Stephen Taylor, he's been doing things in this area for about 24 years and this is the first time he's been asked to do anything like this and he was just ecstatic.”

Vanderpol says it’s important to continue these talk with the younger generations.

“It's one thing to talk about Remembrance Day and go to a service but when you're dealing with the kids it's just so much better because they don't realize a lot of the things that went on. Our emphasis is always on us never wanting this to happen again. We want to have a peaceful country and we just respect the people who served and gave their lives so that we don't have the fighting here.”

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