From a school assembly to a pair of skates
Stronger Together Hockey reaches students in the classroom. Open Ice Initiative makes the next step onto the ice possible. This is what the two of those look like joined together.
A student sits through an assembly about hockey and belonging, and something in it lands. They go home. Nothing happens next, because the next step costs about seven hundred and fifty dollars in equipment before anyone has booked an hour of ice.
That gap is where almost every child is lost. Not at the assembly, and not at the rink. In between.
The point
Not every student has to play
The goal of this pathway is not to convert a school into hockey players. It is to make sure that a student who wants the next step can actually take it, and that a student who does not still walks out of the assembly with something.
Six steps, two organizations
The pathway. Steps one and two happen in the school, four and five happen at the rink, and three is the moment in between.
The assembly
Stronger Together Hockey
A speaker, a room full of students, and forty minutes about belonging that happens to be framed around hockey. No skates, no cost, no barrier to walking in.
The classroom
Stronger Together Hockey
Classroom resources, tabletop hockey and student recognition. The point is not to find the athletes. It is to make sure every student in the room can see a way to be part of something.
The interest
Both organizations
Some students want to keep going. A teacher notices, or a student says so. That is the moment the pathway exists to catch, and right now in most schools nothing catches it.
The gear
Open Ice Initiative
A full set of equipment, fitted, and theirs to keep. This is the barrier that stops almost everyone, and it is the one we exist to remove.
The ice
Open Ice Initiative
A beginner-friendly camp with professional coaching, where nobody assumes you can skate and nobody is surprised when you cannot. Free, with lunch every day.
What comes next
Leaside, the Wildcats, Horizons
An association on their doorstep, a Saturday session, a team. The step that turns a good week into the start of something.
Room for everyone
Some students may play hockey. Some may never play hockey. Some may connect through teamwork, leadership, volunteering, tabletop hockey, storytelling, or cheering others on. The message is that there is room for everyone to be part of the team.
Mario BellissimoCo-Founder and Executive Director, Stronger Together Hockey
Andrew’s initiative to bring people together and give them access to ice time, equipment, coaching, and professionals is something that’s truly special. I trust this camp will be something that you remember forever.
Councillor Brad BradfordBeaches-East York, at March Break Camp 2026 (Beach Metro Community News)
The pilot
What we ask of a school
Nothing financial. A pilot school gives us an assembly slot and a staff contact. Everything after that is ours.
Forty minutes, one time, delivered by Stronger Together Hockey at no cost to the school.
One person who can flag a student who wants to keep going. That is the whole referral mechanism.
So a family hears from us directly, in whatever language is easiest for them.
What it costs
One thousand and sixty dollars, per child, all in
| Item | Each | Number | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full set of equipment, all in | $750 | 1 | $750 |
| Everything else: ice, lunch, insurance and admin | $310 | 1 | $310 |
| Total | $1,060 |
That is one child through a full camp, with a full set of equipment that is theirs.
A full set, all in, with the bag, socks, base layer and tax, comes to $750 a child, and that is what the child keeps. Coaching is donated, so it costs nothing at all. The other large line is ice: between $150 and $380 an hour at the arenas we have used, three hours of it every day, which for a four day camp is $1,800 to $4,560. All in, one camper costs $1,060. The line by line breakdown is on our numbers page.
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Support the pathway
Fund the step in the middle
The assembly is free. The classroom work is free. The part that costs money is the gear and the ice, and that is the part that decides whether anything happens.
Open Ice Initiative Inc. is an incorporated not-for-profit organization in Ontario, governed by a volunteer board of directors and accountable for every dollar it receives.
Because corporate support delivers logo placement, named program rights and media association, it can typically be recorded as a marketing or advertising expense. Please confirm the treatment with your finance team. This is not tax advice.