Issue 11: January 7, 2024 | |
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Happy New Year!
I look forward to a terrific 2024. If the first week is any indication, I think we’re in store for a special year ahead. A historic moment for hockey took place on New Year’s Day when Toronto and New York faced off in the inaugural PWHL regular season game. The CI Co-Founder Bernice Carnegie was there to witness history and you can read more about that below. One day later, Montreal and Ottawa played before the largest crowd ever to watch a pro women’s hockey game, a mark that lasted until yesterday when Minnesota drew a record crowd for their home debut. That is what I call progress in enhancing the culture of the game.
It brings me great joy when I see young people, from all backgrounds, loving the game. The CI team and I have been working diligently for months and are now down the home stretch to hosting “The CI Summit 2024: For the Love of the Game” that takes place in Toronto on January 30-31. The goals for our gathering are to offer a safer place to engage in conversations and support hockey experiences that are more inclusive and welcoming to all.
The CI Summit 2024 is happening during a very special week, when we celebrate the kickoff of Black History Month and the 2024 NHL All-Star long weekend that is back in Toronto for the first time in more than 20 years! I am excited that our 3rd annual Summit will showcase incredible advocates for inclusion in sport including our incredible 2023 Herbert Carnegie Trailblazer Award winners, Sportsnet Anchor David Amber, PWHLPA and hockey legend Brian Burke, and many more who will share their “Love of the Game.”
We can't wait for the hundreds of leaders from the grassroots to the pros to attend, and I hope you will be able to join us!
If you need financial support to attend, please feel free to reach out to info@carnegieinitiative.com for details on scholarship opportunities. Also, if you would like to support our work but can't attend, a tax-deductible donation to The CI can be made.
Enjoy the newsletter!
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Shelley Nicholls
Executive Director
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The CI Summit 2024 Registration Deadline is January 19
The CI Summit 2024 is being held at the Hilton Downtown in Toronto on January 30-31, in advance of NHL All-Star Weekend. This year’s Summit, held in partnership with the NHL and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), focuses on the theme of “For the Love of the Game.”
The CI Summit 2024 ramps up at noon on Tuesday, the 30th, with the opening of our exhibitor hall. The conference then begins at 2:00 pm with a keynote conversation by sports broadcaster David Amber. Panel discussions that afternoon will be followed by breakout sessions. A cocktail and dinner lead into the evening event that features the showing of the spectacular documentary, “Beyond Their Years” and conversation about the issues raised in the film. A full program is slated for the next day from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm followed by a special bonus session for coaches only.
Among the many speakers and panelists are: Marco Di Buono (Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities), Richard Norman (The CI grant recipient; Researcher/Lecturer/Futurist), Amy Walsh (Future of Hockey Lab), Tara Slone (TV and podcast host/contributor), and Mark DeMontis (Canadian Blind Hockey).
A final agenda and list of speakers will be posted in the coming days. Individual ticket pricing is $249 CAD and the registration deadline is January 19. For the most up-to-date information and to register, please visit www.CarnegieInitiative.com/Summit.
#CISummit2024
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Video: Bernice Carnegie
The CI’s Co-Chair Bernice Carnegie shared some thoughts this week about The CI Summit 2024, the importance of providing opportunity, the game of hockey, and the gratification that comes from making a difference in the lives of others.
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The CI Witnesses Hockey History
Three generations of Carnegie women attended the inaugural game of the new Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) on New Year’s Day. The CI Co-Founder Bernice Carnegie, her daughter Brooke Chambers (an Advisor to The CI), and Brooke’s daughter Kyla Mitchell were among the capacity crowd at Mattamy Athletic Centre in downtown Toronto for the league’s first-ever regular season game. New York, with the help of three third period goals, shut out Toronto, 4-0.
The Carnegies visited with several of the dignitaries and others in attendance. They took time to meet up with Saroya Tinker. (see photo below). Saroya recently retired as a star player after capturing the Isobel Cup last season as a member of the Toronto Six of the now defunct PHF. Bernice made history in 2021 when she became part of the first BIPOC ownership of a women’s pro team, the Six.
Tinker, who is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Black Girls Hockey Club Canada, now works as a TV analyst and was part of the CBC broadcast crew on site for the PWHL’s historic game.
Bernice reflected on the importance of attending the game in person, “We were part of history in the making. It was a lovely space to be in, surrounded by many others who had and were propelling hockey forward.”
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L-R: Saroya Tinker, Bernice Carnegie, Brooke Chambers, and Kyla Mitchell.
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"Beyond Their Years" Receiving Accolades
The Carnegie Initiative, in partnership with Burst, is planning for a full winter season of viewings and panel discussions about the award-winning documentary “Beyond Their Years: The Incredible Legacies of Herb Carnegie and Buck O’Neil.” The film tells the story of parallel lives lived by Herb Carnegie in his hockey journey and by Buck O’Neil in baseball.
The film received laurels as Winner of the Best Feature Film category at the 2023 Toronto Documentary, Feature & Short Film Festival. “Beyond Their Years” was also honored as an “Official Selection” at the 2023 Black Bottom Film Festival in Pittsburgh.
"We are very proud to be associated with this superbly produced and edited film,” said Craig Leipold, Owner of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, following an event featuring the film’s screening in St. Paul, Minnesota last Spring. “The story has deep historical importance - it’s a must see."
“Beyond Their Years,” produced by Bryant McBride, The CI’s Co-Chair and Founder/CEO of Burst, depicts the compelling story of sports and social justice icons Carnegie and O’Neil, who were excluded, because of their race, from competing at the highest professional leagues of the sports they loved. Instead of becoming angry and bitter, they channeled the injustice they both experienced into pioneering work that made their respective sports, and the world, more inclusive. The 48-minute film, that features dozens of interviews and rare footage, ties together their legacies in a verité style that teaches, heals, and humanizes.
The CI hosted the world premiere of “Beyond Their Years” at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto this past June. That event came two nights before the film aired across Canada on TSN. Other showings and discussions of the documentary have taken place in Boston, Massachusetts; Baltimore, Maryland; Harlem and a second showing in Toronto.
Upcoming events will be announced in the near future.
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The CI Board member Karina Villegas became an above knee right leg amputee in 1991 after being hit by a Venezuelan’s government vehicle in her high school zone. She was granted political asylum and became a United States citizen in 2010. Karina began her sled hockey career at age 40 and has been a member of the USA Women’s National Para Ice Hockey Team since 2016.
CI: What are your thoughts about the impact of The CI’s annual summits and what can be accomplished at the upcoming The CI Summit 2024?
KV: The CI’s summit is an outstanding way to support those who are not being heard by the big organizations that make the decisions, and to create opportunities for them to share with our hockey community their struggles in their fight for inclusion.
This year’s summit preceding the NHL All-Star Game weekend will make the summit an even bigger platform, and will give us an opportunity to make sure everyone feels like they are where they belong.
CI: What strategies can be implemented within the disabled persons community to encourage more participation in hockey?
KV:
-Establish a PR team. This gets overlooked all the time but it’s a must. Social media is a quick way to recruit players, fundraise, and show donors the accomplishments of the players and the team in general.
-Host Sled Hockey clinics at beginning or end of the season.
-Establish relationships with VA, and rehabilitation hospitals. If there aren’t any Wounded Warriors sled hockey programs in the area, then veterans could join your program.
-Reach out to your city, or town Department of Recreations, and let them know of your program. Find out if they want to be involved and if available for support.
-Public schools are a very tough ground because only the school’s district approved information is allowed to circulate on campuses, but requesting an opportunity for an informational presentation is a great start.
-Contact local TV and radio stations and ask if they are willing to run a story.
-This one is the hardest to achieve – find a way to get a line of communication with the DEI, community, and hockey culture departments of the nearest professional hockey teams.
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CI: What is the future of para hockey over the next five to ten years?
KV: Hopefully in five years, women sled hockey players from around the world would be getting ready for their appearance at the Winter Paralympic Games!
It’s way long overdue to have women’s teams participating in the event, and for the entire world to watch that will be great for women with disabilities everywhere. It will help to grow the sport in an explosive way. It will motivate women of all ages, and from anywhere to play the sport.
I am also expecting a few programs will be established across Latin America, and countries in Europe where there are ice rinks but no programs at the moment.
CI: Was there a particular instance in your life you recall as the moment you fell in love with hockey?
KV: First time on the ice back in July 2014 when I touched the puck and made a pass in a friendly scrimmage game during my first sled hockey clinic, such a blissful moment.
CI: What are the most immediate challenges The CI must focus on to see more progress in making the sport more inclusive and welcoming to all?
KV: I think right now the biggest challenge for The CI is to maintain the trust of people without a voice, trying to connect them with the big organizations that have the means, resources, and the opportunity to reach out to the masses is not an easy task. The yearly CI summits are a great opportunity to work on that. However, grassroots organizations have clear goals, and they are working to accelerate the pace towards the sport’s growth by creating more opportunities for people with disabilities, women, BIPOC, LGBTQ2+, and the Hispanic communities, not just here in the USA and Canada but also around the world. Whilst big organizations still can’t quite grasp the importance of DEI in the sport, and that really is a setback.
CI: What are you reading at present, and what book(s) do you recommend for others involved in making hockey more inclusive and accepting?
KV: Right now, I am reading “Brotherhood: When West Point Rugby Went to War” by Martin Pengelly, and “Youthquake: Why African Demography Should Matter to the World” by Edward Paice.
I would recommend:
-"Lessons Learned: My Journey to the Podium" by Josh Pauls
-"How to Raise an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi
-"Solito: A Memoir" by Javier Zamora
-"Girls Don't Play Sport" by Chloe Dalton
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Calendar
January 30-31, 2024 - The CI Summit 2024 in Toronto, Ontario. Information & Registration.
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Support The CI
The CI gratefully appreciates donations, large and small, that help us with our mission: “Work to ensure that hockey is inclusive, supportive, and welcoming to all.”
Please consider a tax-deductible donation today.
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