Camps

Keep Your Gear

Every camper leaves with a full set of equipment that is theirs permanently. It is the part of the model that lets a child keep playing after the camp ends.

Student volunteers handing out equipment bags to a group of campers gathered along the boards

A loaner programme gets a child through a week. A gear set they own gets them through a season.

A full set costs $500 per camper. That is close to half the total cost of putting one child through camp, and it is the line item sponsors are asked to cover first.

What a set includes

  • Skates, fitted on site
  • Helmet with a cage
  • Shoulder pads, elbow pads and gloves
  • Shin pads and hockey pants
  • A stick sized to the camper
  • A bag to carry it in

Fitting

Sizing is done before the camp using guides we built with visuals and translated language, for families who may be unfamiliar with hockey equipment terminology. Final fitting happens on site on day one.

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A volunteer adjusting a camper’s pink helmet at the boards
Helmet fitting at the boards before a session.
The bag,
unpacked

Everything a camper carries out on the Friday

Photographed one piece at a time, priced at what we pay, and every item of it theirs to keep.

  1. A hockey helmet with a full cage, seen from the frontHelmet with cage$85CSA certified, fitted on the first morning
  2. A pair of hockey skates, seen from aboveSkates$140The one thing they outgrow fastest
  3. A hockey stick, full lengthStick$60Cut to the child, not to a shelf size
  4. A pair of hockey glovesGloves$55
  5. A shin guardShin guards$45
  6. A pair of hockey pantsHockey pants$55
  7. An Open Ice Initiative jersey, folded, crest facing upJersey and socks$35Theirs to keep

Shoulder pads and elbow pads are in every set too; we do not have a clean photograph of those two yet. A full set is $500 once Hockey Stick Man and the others have discounted it, and every piece of it is the child's to keep. We do not hand out bags.

The running
total

What has gone home so far

Cumulative, across every camp we have run. None of it comes back.

  1. 60Helmets
  2. 60Pairs of skates
  3. 60Sticks
  4. 60Pairs of gloves
  5. 60Shoulder pads
  6. 60Elbow pads
  7. 60Shin guards
  8. 60Hockey pants
  9. 60Jerseys

540 individual pieces of equipment have gone home with a child and have not come back. That is what $15,000+ looks like when you count it rather than round it.