Prince Albert’s time to shine

Hockey runs within the blood of Northern Selects ahead Megan Smith. Both of
her grandfathers performed the sport; her father, Bryan, performed and is the
coach of St. Francis Xavier University ladies’s hockey group.

With a love of the sport generations deep in her household, Megan knew she
wished comply with of their footsteps and laced up her skates at 5 years outdated.

“It’s like a legacy,” the now 18-year-old says. “My household has performed
hockey and my brother [Oliver] simply beloved the game a lot.”

Megan’s youthful brother, Oliver, would tag alongside to observe her video games when
she started her hockey journey. Soon sufficient, he adopted his sister and started
taking part in hockey when he turned 5 years outdated.

“He was so antsy in the stands. He just wanted to be on the ice,” Megan
says. “He was so desperate to get on the ice and the minute you may put
skates on his toes, he was off, he was going. He had a lot vitality.”

Together with their older sister Emma, all three Smith siblings had been very
shut rising up in Antigonish, N.S.

“We were so competitive,” Megan says. “We had been at all times taking part in mini-sticks
collectively, taking pictures basketballs exterior, going mountain climbing and fishing and
tenting. We’ve at all times been so shut. So even when Oliver received sick, we had been
there to help him. We couldn’t be as energetic, however we made up for it
taking part in video video games, watching films and taking part in board video games.”

When Oliver started his first yr taking part in U11, his father Bryan seen that
one thing appeared off whereas he was on the ice.

“He wasn’t as fast,” Bryan says. “He was very fast, very agile. Then when
the autumn got here for tryouts, he simply didn’t have that very same flexibility,
agility.”

Oliver was complaining about his leg and groin being sore, so he started
physiotherapy to attempt to strengthen his leg. Along with the ache, he began
to really feel unwell. That introduced Oliver again to his physician in February of 2017,
when he was formally identified with Ewing sarcoma in his left hip, a uncommon
kind of most cancers that happens in bones or tender tissue.

With his mobility restricted and Oliver spending extra time at house as he
underwent therapy, the Smiths brainstormed what actions he may do to
cross the time. Bryan had some woodworking expertise, so he considered
making a robotic out of wooden and hockey laces. Nicknamed the “Olliebot,”
Oliver labored together with his household to make extra of the wood robots to present to
associates.

It wasn’t till Bruce MacPherson, the daddy of Megan’s teammates Bree
MacPherson and Mairead MacPherson, requested to purchase an Olliebot that they
realized this enjoyable household exercise can be an effective way to present again to the
neighborhood.

“We were like, ‘Wow, we could sell these,’” Bryan says. “We knew that
Oliver’s most cancers, Ewings most cancers, there wasn’t plenty of fundraising for it.
It’s very uncommon, and there isn’t plenty of fundraising for childhood most cancers
basically. … We knew we needed to direct it to that.”

The Smiths launched Olliebots for public gross sales in the midst of November
2017. By Dec. 23 of that yr, they’d bought 273 distinctive Olliebots. Proceeds
go to the Ewings Cancer Foundation of Canada and help different households in
Nova Scotia who’ve been affected by childhood most cancers.

“Each one comes with a bit tag after which hockey laces and wood blocks,
after which there’s customizable stickers and googly eyes,” Megan explains.
“Each Olliebot is definitely signed with a coronary heart inside an O. It’s on the
left hip, which is the place Oliver’s most cancers was.”

There are fairly just a few notable members of the hockey neighborhood that personal an
Olliebot. Pittsburgh Penguins captain and Nova Scotia native Sidney Crosby
has one, plus he signed an Olliebot for Oliver to maintain. Toronto Maple Leafs
star Mitch Marner, Mike Babcock, Darryl Sittler, Ron MacLean and Don Cherry
every have an Olliebot. Blayre Turnbull, Jill Saulnier and Troy Ryan of
Canada’s National Women’s Team even have their very own.

With time, the Olliebot undertaking grew to become a neighborhood fundraising effort.
Schools in Antigonish have helped to arrange wooden for the Smiths or host
Olliebot nights the place academics and college students assist to create the wood
robots. Megan’s teammates on the Selects additionally helped in gathering provides.

“The women which are taking part in on my present group, I performed with all of them the
means up in Selects. Some years, we get to the top of the season and the
coaches shall be like, ‘OK women, untie your skates, take the laces out and
cross them to the Smiths,’ and we make Olliebots out of skate laces proper
from my teammates’ skates,” Megan says. “I imply, I’m watching individuals undo
their skates to present to my household so we can provide cash to analysis for
most cancers. It’s simply unbelievable the help you could get from a bunch of
20 women.”

Unfortunately, Oliver misplaced his battle with most cancers in June 2019, in the future
after his twelfth birthday. Just because the hockey neighborhood rallied across the
Smith household when Oliver was identified, the neighborhood continues to offer
them with help and love since his passing.

“I’ve been with [my teammates] since Oliver received identified all the best way up
till he died in 2019, they usually all got here to his funeral, they had been within the
entrance row at his funeral,” Megan says. “They had been throughout, and even the
coaches too.”

There are good days and unhealthy days when grieving the lack of a beloved one, however
Megan has proven resilience and perseverance. Her love of the sport has additionally
helped her over the previous few years.

“Hockey has been the one place the place I really feel I can go and that [it’s] only a
optimistic outlet,” she says. “Nobody meets you with a frown face, everybody
meets you with a smile they usually ask you the way you’re doing, they usually discuss
about Oliver in essentially the most optimistic methods. They let you know simply how nice of a
sister or mom or father you might be to him and the way proud you ought to be simply
to hold on his legacy.”

Almost three years later, there continues to be indicators and tributes to
Oliver within the Nova Scotia hockey neighborhood. Megan switched her jersey to
Oliver’s No. 2 to proceed to hold on his legacy—plus Oliver’s two greatest
associates put on No. 2 and No. 22 to recollect him. The Selects even have decals
on the again of their helmets that characteristic an O, a coronary heart and a No. 2.

In honour of Oliver, the Smith household continues to make Olliebots and
donate their proceeds to the Ewings Cancer Foundation of Canada. While
Oliver used to signal every Olliebot together with his signature O and coronary heart, Megan now
continues that custom. Each member of the Selects has their very own Olliebot
that sits of their dressing room stalls. There’s even an Olliebot sitting
exterior on their native area signal.

“It’s not glued there, it simply sits there and it has sat there for like
three years,” Megan says. “Nobody takes it. Everyone is aware of what it’s and
it’s completely superb.”

Overall, the Smiths have remodeled 4,500 Olliebots and have raised extra
than $100,000.

“With Oliver dropping his battle, you by no means wish to see one other child go
by means of what he has went by means of,” Megan says. “Just with the dearth of
fundraising and analysis for pediatric most cancers, I feel it’s essential that
we sustain his legacy.

“I feel Oliver can be actually honoured to know that we carried on his
legacy and that there’s nonetheless hope for different youngsters.”

Something Oliver would at all times say is, “Be the hardest worker.” It’s a motto
the Smith household used all through Oliver’s life and after his dying. With
Olliebots tucked into their suitcases for the Esso Cup, Megan and the
Selects plan to embody that motto on the ice in Okotoks.

“Whenever I play, I attempt to be the toughest employee and it brings me a lot
pleasure to have the ability to do this and honour his legacy,” she says. “Everyone on my
group is aware of the ‘Be the hardest worker,’ and we actually reside by it. We are the
hardest staff in follow, off ice, throughout video games. We reside by it, and it
means a lot that the women help me and my household.”