An 11-year-old Cape Breton hockey player has raised enough money through 50/50 sales to help another boy register for the hockey season.
Mitchell Jenkins says the idea was born last year during a drive home from hockey with his dad.
Every year, Mitchell sold enough Glace Bay Minor Hockey 50/50 tickets to pay for his own registration. His father suggested that this time, the extra money be used to sign someone up who might not otherwise have the chance to play.
"I don't think I even had any input,” says Mitchell’s father, Wayne Jenkins. “He just came to me and said, 'Dad, I have a little buddy. He loves hockey. He loves to play, and I'd love to give him the opportunity.'"
Mitchell says he sat next to the other boy in class last year, and that his friend would always dream of lacing them up competitively like some of the other kids.
Now, it's coming true.
"He's really excited,” Mitchell says. “Every time we're outside, he's like, ‘When's the next hockey practice?'"
Mitchell and his friend have already hit the ice together a few times, and there's a chance they could even be teammates.
"That would be really, really good,” says Mitchell. “We could go to the hockey practices together, the hockey games, and he would have a drive all the time."
Mitchell’s act of paying it forward caught the attention of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, who gave him a jersey, hat and tickets to last weekend's home opener. This week at school, he was given a free lunch.
"I didn't think I was going to get anything for it. A 'good job,' anything like that," Mitchell says.
Mitchell and his dad plan to make it an annual thing by sponsoring one kid each year through ticket sales.
"It doesn't matter if they're my friend, or I don't know them. If they want to play hockey and they don't have the money, we'll put them in it."
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.
