First Every Child Matters Hockey Game 2023 (image credit - Jeremy Boston)

By Michael Reeve

ORANGE JERSEY GAME

Every Child Matters hockey game returns to Kamloops

Aug 25, 2025 | 4:29 PM

KAMLOOPS — The third annual Every Child Matters Orange Shirt hockey game will be played at the Sandman Centre next weekend (Sept. 6).

It’s the second time the game will be played in Kamloops, after the inaugural event was held in Williams Lake. The event brings together residential school survivors, First Nations and community officials, Indigenous and non-Indigenous spectators and an array of sporting celebrities all for the cause.

“We have some amazing, well-known Indigenous actors, NHL players, different people who are attending,” said Orange Shirt Society Founder Phyllis Webstad. “And it’s a day to invite everyone, Indigenous and non-Indigenous to come together to learn and remember and just share a meal together.”

It’s a full day event for those taking part in the game, attending a tour of the residential school in the morning along with a special ceremony.

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For spectators, the event begins in the afternoon with an autograph session ahead of puck drop at 2:00 p.m.

There is a hope to share the event in the future with games across the province and country.

“We do have plans for it to continue, maybe not in Kamloops but maybe in another province or another city,” said Webstad. “To keep that conversation going, to keep it in the forefront of the mind of Canadians of what happened to us in residential school and to bring education and awareness to those who never made it home.”

Full details on the game can be found here.