Around the world
Most of The Hockey Foundation's coaching happened in India. The gear, the coaches & the friendships went a lot further. Here's where, country by country (20+ countries got involved along the way, in one role or another).
- 10,000+pieces of hockey equipment donated, in India & well beyond it
- 5 palletsof gear shipped by sea to Istanbul, 2017
- 10 bagsof gear (200+ pieces) for a week of coaching in Nunavik, 2017
- 11 sledsfor sledge hockey in Metula, Israel, 2018
Where it started: China, 2007
Before THF had a name, Adam coached in Heilongjiang Province with US Olympian Angela Ruggiero, for the New York Islanders' Project Hope. He also ran the exchange that brought kids from those schools to tournaments on Long Island. That's where he saw what the game could do for kids a long way from the NHL. The full story →
Canada
Nunavik, northern Quebec (2017). THF's first program outside India. In March 2017 a THF volunteer coach ran a week-long hockey clinic for the boys & girls of Puvirnituq, an Inuit village on Hudson Bay. Ahead of his arrival, THF volunteers in the US & Canada shipped 10 full bags of gear (200+ pieces) north, to donate there.
Team India in Brampton & Calgary (2015). THF organized Team India's trip to Canada & ran its itinerary on the ground. On October 9, Team India played its first game in North America, against the ECHL's Brampton Beast (the first time an ECHL club faced a national team). On October 15 it played the Calgary Inferno. The Brampton game →
United States
New York City. For years, THF collected donated gear around New York & sent it on to India & beyond. Some of it stayed close to home: THF donated equipment to a hockey program at Kips Bay in the Bronx. Ice Hockey in Harlem, a fellow hockey charity, also passed along its spare gear, some of which THF handed out at the Shimla Ice Skating Club in 2016.
Turkey
On June 15, 2017, five pallets of donated gear left THF's warehouse in New Jersey, bound by sea for Istanbul (with a hand from hockey4all, a fellow hockey charity). They landed in Turkey in late July, to outfit players there.
Morocco & Egypt
THF got to know the young ice hockey programs in both countries and sent each of them donated gear: Morocco by spring 2017, Egypt later that year. (There was even a plan for a game at the foot of the Pyramids in Cairo. It stayed a plan.)
Chile & Argentina
Hockey at the bottom of the map. Working with hockey4all, THF helped get donated gear to young players in Chile and to new skaters in Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina, in 2016-17. The idea was to go further south still, for the first game of ice hockey ever played in Antarctica. That one's still on the wish list.
Israel
In 2018 THF sent 11 sledge-hockey sleds & sticks to Metula, in far northern Israel, plus sled pushers (attachments that let able-bodied people push a sled). Sledge hockey is the adaptive, sit-down version of the game.
Peru, most recently
THF's last official India program was in 2018. The equipment donations kept going after that, and the most recent one went to Peru.
And plenty of conversations
Along the way THF also traded emails, plans & big ideas with hockey people in places like Kenya, Namibia, Ireland & the Philippines. Most of those stayed conversations.
What's next?
The door's open to a next chapter. Know a community that could use some gear, or want to help get it there? Get in touch.