By the time their season is over the Victoria Grizzlies players will have attended roughly 15 schools in the Greater Victoria area, donating their time to encourage kids to stay active.
The program is called Get Moving with the Grizzlies, where players go to elementary and middle schools and teach the children about the importance of being active throughout their lives. The team reads to the children, signs autographs and plays sports with them.
Photos from our school visit at David Cameron Elementary school @SD62_Sooke this week! We had a blast! #GetMovingWithTheGrizzlies #WeAreGrizzlies pic.twitter.com/lIJVztS2zu
— Victoria Grizzlies (@BCHLGrizzlies) February 3, 2018
Victoria Captain Lucas Clark thinks making time to give back to the community in this way is very important. A Port Perry, ON product, Clark said that he remembers when he was in school the junior hockey team -that he equated to NHL status- used to come to his school and read to them.
“You remember the feeling being that age so that’s why it’s nice to go and do that for them,” Clark said. “We like going, they’re a lot of fun. We play road hockey with them and we enjoy it as much as they do.”
Recess Time at Happy Valley Elementary school. @SD62_Sooke Grizzlies own #5 @NicoSummy having a race on the Monkey Bars. Do you think he won? #GetMovingWithTheGrizzlies #recess #Schoolvisit #Westshore #WeAreGrizzlies pic.twitter.com/HMYW5raTU5
— Victoria Grizzlies (@BCHLGrizzlies) January 24, 2018
The children have a calendar that they fill out and if they do something active each day they get a small prize at the end of the month.