With her soon to be much shorter red hair, 10 year old Avery Martindale (back row, centre) stood with her Saugeen Shores Storm teammates, the Atom C Girls, February 2 at the Plex in Port Elgin.
Hub Staff
Not only was it a weekend of hockey in Saugeen Shores with the Caitlyn Cobean Memorial Girls Silver Stick tournament February 1 to 3 that brought 36 teams together to compete; but it was also a weekend of team spirit and community support with local Atom C Storm player Avery Martindale continuing what is becoming a Storm Girls Pay It Forward tradition.
Martindale had decided that during this year's tournament she would cut off and donate her long red hair and challenged other Storm hockey families to collect pledges with all donations going directly to Caitlyn Cobean's Community Crusaders.
Caitlyn Cobean was a Saugeen Shores Storm and Silver Stick athlete who passed away in 2008 at the age of 15 following a battle with brain cancer. The Crusaders was founded by family and friends of Caitlyn and, through the Tara Boom Houston Children's Foundation, offers support to local families whose children have been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
After having had her hair styled into two long braids, Martindale had Caitlyn's mom, Rona Cobean, snip off her locks in front of family, friends and teammates during the tournament February 2. She had been growing her hair for three years.
“I wanted to do it to help other families to get money that they need to help with their children and I wanted to do it in memory of Caitlyn,” said Martindale. She added that Bantam C Girls Assistant Captain, 14 year old Lauren MacDonald, had inspired her to do the challenge as she was the one who started it. "When Lauren did her Pay It Forward challenge last year I wanted to think of something that I could do this year," she said.
MacDonald said that since winning the Caitlyn Cobean Memorial Award in 2016, an annual award presented to a female member of the Saugeen Shores Minor Hockey Association (SSMHA) for showing love and demonstrating the true meaning of the sport of girls hockey, she'd felt a special connection to the Cobean family. “I see Rona around the arena quite often and she's always using her time at the tournaments and so I just wanted to help out,” she said.
“Last year I challenged all the teams to come up with something to raise money,” explained MacDonald. “Our team did lava bracelets and another team did lip chap and another team did a bottle drive,” she said.
MacDonald's teammate and Captain Layla Cushnie also stepped up this year and challenged the Bantam girls to participate in a spin class at Lakeshore Recreation last week. The girls raised just over $1200 that went directly to the Crusaders and they also raised $250 through a bottle drive two days prior, which they donated to Martindale's challenge.
Rona Cobean said that the challenges that the girls had been doing were amazing. “What amazes me is some of these girls didn't even know Caitlyn, they were born after she had passed away,” she explained. “The fact that her legacy is continuing on in these girls and getting to know who she was and what she was all about is just the neatest thing."
Avery's mom Emily Martindale explained that Avery's braids will be donated to Angel Hair, a Child’s Voice Foundation initiative that provides wigs and hair loss solutions to financially disadvantaged children in Canada who have lost their hair due to a medical condition or treatment.
Emily said that Avery would be donating just over 17 inches of hair. “Avery thought that was pretty neat as her hockey number is 17," she said.
Martindale thanked everyone involved with Avery's challenge. “Thank you to our extended Storm girls hockey families. We truly have the best of the best. Our girls will continue to do great things on and off the ice and together they will make a difference." she said.
Emily said that is what hockey is all about, family. “It's amazing for the association we have and the most important part is to support each other and to have fun just like Caitlyn taught us all," she said.
New to this year's Caitlyn Cobean Memorial tournament was an artisan market in the Rotary Hall organized by local hand lettering artist Margaux Bucher. Using her own artistic skills to support Avery's challenge, Bucher was selling hand lettered and personalized hockey pucks which had been donated by Mowbray's Canadian Tire, adding $500 to this year's Pay It Forward.
The Caitlyn Cobean Memorial tournament was hosted in Saugeen Shores with games happening at The Plex in Port Elgin, the Coliseum in Southampton and the Tiverton Sports Arena. SSMHA Tournament Director Alison Charbonneau said that the weekend had been a great success overall. “There were some really great teams involved this year which made for some good match ups and close games, especially in the finals,” said Charbonneau. "Kincardine was the big winner, taking home the Novice, Atom and Bantam championship. Tillsonburg won the Peewee division and South Bruce won the Midget division.”
Other participating teams came from St. Mary's, North Middlesex, West Oxford, Wingham, Lucknow, West Grey, Sarnia, Lambton, Kent County, Owen Sound, Walkerton, Mount Forest and Lucan.
At the time of publishing, the total raised for Avery's Pay It Forward challenge was not yet known but by February 2 the tally was over $3,000 with pledges still coming in. Avery's original target was $1,000.
Caitlyn Cobean's Community Crusaders' Rona Cobean stands with 10 year old Avery Martindale at the Girls Silver Stick memorial tournament February 2. Avery was ready to donate her hair to the Angel Hair program while raising money for the Crusaders in her Pay It Forward challenge.
Avery Martindale shows off her long braids prior to getting them cut, her jersey number 17 matching the number of inches of hair she was donating.
With a look of surprise on her face, Avery Martindale is handed the first of her two long braids by Rona Cobean.
Rona Cobean (back row, centre) stands with members of the Saugeen Shores Storm Girls Atom C and Bantam C hockey teams who participated in and supported this year's Pay It Forward challenges in support of Caitlyn Cobean's Community Crusaders. Avery Martindale (in front of Rona) holds her now cut braids near where they used to be.
Saugeen Shores Bantam C Girls Assistant Captain Lauren MacDonald (right) started the Pay It Forward challenge last year to raise money for Caitlyn Cobean's Community Crusaders. Teamate and Captain Layla Cushnie organized a spin class Pay It Forward challenge for her teammates prior to this year's memorial tournament.
During the artisan market in the Rotary Hall February 2, hand lettering artist Margaux Bucher was personalizing hockey pucks which had been donated by Mowbray's Canadian Tire in Port Elgin. Proceeds from the sale of the pucks went to Avery Martindale's Pay It Forward challenge.
