EDMONTON—Together, the United Way and the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) hosted their fifth annual “UDodge” dodgeball tournament at Northlands Expo Centre on Thursday.
The teams were comprised of police officers and local youth. On top of having fun, the goal of the tournament is to connect the youth with positive role models.
The tournament is scheduled during Spring Break to give the youth something to do and keep them busy, but it also has some other benefits, explained EPS Sgt. Michelle Horchuk.
“Mostly, it’s designed to give them a different perspective of adults and really, the learning for the adults that there are so many great youth out there, we just need to invest a little of ourselves in them,” she said.
Some of the youth participating are returning from previous years. Lwal Uruak played in the tournament last year and he brought a few friends along this year.
“It’s just a fun place to be, to play dodgeball with others and it’s fun to be playing with police,” he said.
“Police are different when they are having fun or with kids than when they are at work. I like that they volunteered to play with us because it changes everything.”
Horchuk admitted that at the start of the day, the youth tend to stay separate from officers. However, by the time the teams are playing, the lines between youth and police aren’t there anymore.
“You can’t tell who the police are on the team because everybody’s just one unit,” she said.
After previous tournaments, the camaraderie remains.
“Some of the youth will come up and they’ll say, ‘Hey, do you remember me from UDodge?”’ said Horchuk.
“Those relationships are formed and some of those police go to those agencies to visit them.”
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