Six members of the Kelowna Rockets had an interesting experience in Vancouver on Nov. 6.
They had a chance to tour East Hastings Street under the supervision Vancouver police.
Riley Stadel, Michael Herringer, Rodney Southham, Goride Ballhorn, Devante Stephens, and Tomas Soustal first had a presentation about street drugs.
Then they were able to go with officers to learn how cargo boats are inspected.
Finally, the players were taken to East Hastings Street where they walked around for about four hours. They were told to talk to the people struggling with drug addiction they saw on the street, if they were willing. Many addicts did speak to the players.
Get breaking National news
“Almost every person that the players spoke to gave the young men the same advice, stay away from drugs, don’t ever use them, not even once,” Cst. Keir Thomson of the Kelowna RCMP Street Enforcement Unit (SEU) said. “A powerful message for these young hockey players to hear because of who the message comes from. Coaches, parents and us as police officers have all passed along the same message many times before, but when that message comes straight from someone actually fighting addiction, who explains to the players how their life has been forever impacted by their addictions, it carries so much more weight.”
The players said they were definitely affected by the tour.
“It was a pretty cool experience. Very, very eye-opening for all of us I think,” Tomas Soustal said. “It got to our hearts a bit. It’s definitely a place you don’t want to end up. When people share their stories with you it’s hard, and like I said, it’s very eye-opening.”
Comments