Strolling down a neighbourhood street in the GTA this past week would likely mean seeing hockey sticks of all different sizes on front porches.
In fact, all across Canada in any neighbourhood hockey sticks are leaning against porches, rails, walls, and garage doors as Canadians everywhere pay tribute to the Humboldt Broncos.
One touching moment caught by a doorbell camera in Whitby and subsequently posted to Twitter shows a young boy paying his own emotional tribute.
Matthew Heaney, 12, can be seen picking up the stick his family placed on his front porch. He turns it over in his hands a few times and then places it back in its original spot but not before leaving it with a little kiss.
His older sister, Victoria Heaney, posted the now-viral video to Twitter, where it has so far been viewed more than 642,000 times and received more than 30,000 likes.
Victoria told Global News that Matthew has been playing hockey since he was five and the news of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash affected him greatly.
“He was really upset about it and once he heard about the sticks out movement it was his idea to put his stick on our porch with green tape so our family could show support,” she said.
She said her family was very proud of Matthew but didn’t imagine the tweet would garner so much attention.
It has been re-tweeted over 7,000 times.