the green spot blog

Ten years ago, an idea was born... Let's invite people to raise some money and play some hockey.  A pretty novel and pretty brilliant idea our Executive Director and (one of the) biggest Oilers fan I've ever met, Kerry Precht, can be thanked for. The tournament has brought players back year after year - many saying that it is what they scheduled their January around. It has been a day that many people come together each year to make happen. We had a humble beginning in 2010. Six teams and one ice rink. Our Site Manager, Dave Reimier had built a pull "zambonie" to flood the ice which we still use today (with some modifications). We raised $10,128 that first year. Our first Pond Hockey Rink in 2010 Our second, third, and fourth years showed a lot of growth. Six teams grew to eight which grew to ten. Need for a second rink was evident as was a tightening of the rules...who knew hockey players could be so competitive?!...Okay, okay - well...maybe we knew that al...

Wow! Pond Hockey was amazing! Our Ninth year was one for the record books, for sure. The weather was about as perfect as one could ask for and we had twelve teams sign up for an incredible day of hockey, raising funds for camp programs, and a great time with family.  It really is magical when the sun breaks over the trees in the morning. Teams came from all over Alberta to play: Edmonton, Gem, Linden, and Calgary. It really was a team effort! We raised over $32,000 for camp! How amazing is that?! Someone from Gem even pledged to donate $100/goal - we're pretty happy that Gem scored a lot of goals! Year after year, it's just amazing to see all of the support. Spectators, players, staff, and volunteers come together to make Pond Hockey one of the most amazing one day events that we hold here at Evergreen. In nine years, would you believe that we've raised $204,640 for camp? Yes - you really should read that again... $204,640.00 for ...

I would never imagine myself complaining about the warm December weather. Yet here I am - concerned that it just hasn't been cold enough. Who would have ever thought?! A year ago last week - it was between -20 and -30...This year? Battling +10! There has been some pretty awesome results of that nice weather. The Fallen Timber Creek that flows through our land is amazing. This is a pretty rare occurrence. Typically the creek freezes bumpy and it's pretty difficult to get it smooth unless we get some long periods of warm weather...which we've had. Our Dish(rack)tion has been diligently clearing snow on the creek. And you know what? All that nice weather caused the creek to flow over top and smooth out the bumps. Once it froze again - it was magic. I often get asked if we're worried about ice and Pond Hockey and you know what, we're happy. With this being our ninth tournament, we have seen extremely cold weather, extremely warm weather and just about everythin...

This last week we started laying the ice down on our rinks. This is always a challenging process because temperature, water, and the surfaces we build one of the rinks on do not always play nice together. And sometimes it involves Rolf, Dylan, and Max to stand in freezing cold water repairing up to forty holes in the poly base. Oh the things we do for the love of Pond Hockey. We really do love it! Our staff are currently skating on Rink 2 to harden it up for more flooding. It's quite the process - while the rest of the province is groaning because the snow and cold weather has arrived...we are out first thing in the morning trying to take advantage of it so that we can get some good layers down on it. We're only about two months away from our Pond Hockey weekend. New this year? T-shirts...awesome, awesome t-shirts. We'll do a reveal when they arrive in December. We're taking team registrations until December 15th. Spots are starting to fill up so don't w...

Perhaps it was the snow that inspired me late last week to get all of our Pond Hockey Tournament information ready. We're less than four months away from one of our favourite winter past-times. The work begins now though. The sheds and cabins have been moved, boards are being prepped. Both the hand Zamboni and Quadboni are being prepped for another season of hard work. Surfacing and leveling for Rink 2 will be done very soon. Then we wait for the cold to come. We look for a consistent temperature of about 15 degrees before our the first water trucks get called out. And then it's all about making ice day in and day out until Pond Hockey. We are looking forward to a full tournament again this year. We've already heard rumblings of new teams looking to enter. These events only get more and more exciting as we grow. Our Pond Hockey Tournament isn't just about the hockey. It's also an Open House. A great day to come see the site, meet our staff, and get a feeli...

Sometimes when people ask me if things have settled down at camp I want to chuckle. Not because it's a silly question - more because it can feel crazy how far in advance we are planning. Not only that, but a few short days after Impact ended we were training our Fall staff, jumped right into Summer's End Family Camp, and then started receiving Guest Groups on site. There really isn't a "settling" that happens here. Just transitions into the next season. Summer has been packed up in my office, it's true. I've rolled up the signs that read Lost and Found, Registration A-K, The Nurse and stored them for the winter. Summer planning takes a cat nap in September. By October, registration forms for 2018, speakers, and volunteers all start getting worked on. It's exciting to watch plans build and develop. Summer camp isn't the only thing we plan for right now. In fact, it's only one piece of what we do. Retreats and Fundraisers are being planned...