Nunavut teens go online to fund-raise for world female hockey fest

This group of Rankin Inlet hockey players want to attend a hockey festival in Calgary this coming November — and they’re fundraising in their home community and online to raise the money this need. (PHOTO FROM GOFUNDME)

A group of eager young teenage hockey players who live in Rankin Inlet — all girls 14 to 19 years old — have been baking, running teen dances and holding other fundraising events.

Their goal: to attend the Wickenheiser World Female Hockey Festival run by Olympic female hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser this coming November.

Through their local fundraising efforts, the players have managed to raise $18,000 in two months — but that’s only about half the money they need to cover the pricey airfare from Rankin Inlet to Calgary for the players, chaperones and coaches.

So, like many other groups and people in Nunavut, they’ve turned to the online money-raising site, GoFundMe.

The airfare for the 17 players, three chaperones and two coaches will cost roughly $35,000 to $40,000, said Stephanie Mikki Adams, coach of the Rankin Inlet Rock Female team.

Adams already has 13 girls in her Rankin Inlet Bantam/Midget/Ladies group.

“The tournament allows up to 15 players in the roster. So, I will be extending an invitation to two other communities within the Kivalliq Region to have other females from smaller communities to attend as I believe this is a wonderful tournament which helps build the girls’ self-esteem, confidence, and team playing skills,” she said in her online appeal.

The Rankin Inlet hockey players have raised $320 to date of the $2,000 which they hope to raise online.

Their online campaign could do well, judging from the success of the 2011 online appeal to send hockey players from Whale Cove to the Arctic Winter Games and to play other tournaments in the South, which netted more than the $20,000 goal.

Or the group of Clyde River grads who raised $24,055 online for their 2015 grad trip(only to have their planned trip axed by education officials at the last minute.)

Among the other Nunavummiut who are still appealing through GoFundMe for help:

• cancer patient Janice Simailak of Baker Lake, who recently reached out on GoFundMe because she is not receiving any Government of Nunavut assistance in Toronto where she has undergone surgery and is now enduring a six-month bout of chemotherapy; and,

• Bradley Ikkutisluk of Gjoa Haven, who is undergoing treatment for cancer at an Edmonton hospital turned to online crowdfunding for money to help reunite his family.