The University of Windsor hockey team and Unifor helped rebuild a corral at the Shackan Indian Band earlier this week (Image Credit: Contributed)

By Chad Klassen

MERRITT FLOOD

Windsor hockey team, Unifor help Merritt residents rebuild after November flooding

Aug 31, 2022 | 5:00 PM

loopsMERRITT, B.C. — Dayna Charters’ basement was destroyed after November flooding in Merritt. Months later, insurance determined it would not cover the damage from the flood.

However, thanks to the generosity of hockey players from the University of Windsor hockey team, the First Nations Emergency Services Society and Unifor, the basement and the entire property is close to being finished.

“We’ve replaced the fencing that was washed away by the flooding. The homeowner’s basement was gutted, cleaned up, and we came in and drywalled, insulated, put vapour barrier up. We’re completing her basement, getting her back, moving her family back in,” said Unifor national coordinator Mike Aquilina.

Many fellow Unifor representatives volunteer their time to give back to projects like these every year. This year, Merritt is their destination, leading the renovation with the help of the Windsor Lancer hockey team.

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It’s been one of many projects the group has been working on this week.

“We’ve got this place [on] Coldwater, out at the corral [with the Shackan Indian Band]. One of their fences got washed away. We’re building a corral there for the horses,” said Windsor forward Brady Pataki. “Then we’re also doing a shed. It’s a been a multi-facet project, but we’re happy to be doing it.”

Lennard Joe from the Nlaka’pamux Health Services Society added, “The rebuild at Shackan will be many years for things to happen and recovery, but having a team, a whole hockey team, come and show up and have 25 guys out and doing a fencing corral project that would’ve taken a month if we need did as a family/community, to have it done in just a couple days was just amazing to watch.”

This isn’t the first time the Windsor hockey team has stepped into action. The program has been to places like New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina to help families there.

Last November, head coach Kevin Hamlin was in Merritt watching his son play for the BCHL’s Coquitlam Express. Days later, the city was being evacuated due to flooding. He knew his team had to come back and help.

“I want people to know there are people across the country that truly do care about what’s going on here,” said Hamlin. “We want, for a very short time, to offer some kind of relief to this community.”

The trip is more than the players using their braun to help. It’s also been about building relationships with local First Nations and learning about places like the Kamloops Indian Residential School they visited last weekend.

“We’ll find a way to educate friends and family back home,” said team captain Mason Kohn. “Every day, when we hear things against Indigenous people we’ll be able to stand up. We’ve learned a lot.”

As part of relationship-building, the Lancers have also been hosting a group of aspiring Indigenous hockey players at a camp this week.