From left, David Shuvera, Aleah Gagnon and Jane Hilder pose with the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Cup – photo 250 News

Prince George, B.C. – Canadian Tire has launched a tournament that allows students at inner-city schools in Prince George the chance to lace up their skates and take part in a sport they usually wouldn’t have the financial means to participate in.

The hockey tournament took place Friday at Kin 1 and Kin 2 and allowed 300 students from six schools (Nusdeh Yoh, Harwin, Peden Hill, Westwood, Van Bien and Spruceland elementary schools) the chance to hoist the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Cup.

“It’s a culmination of a year long opportunity to get kids playing a sport they don’t have an opportunity to play,” said David Shuvera, general manager of the Prince George Canadian Tire. “This is going to be an annual event and it’s been a dream of Nevio Rossi from Harwin and I’ve got to give him a ton of credit for making sure everything came together.”

Jumpstart is the national program for Canadian Tire stores across the country and Shuvera said the Jumpstart Cup is an offshoot of that.

“This program is something above and beyond that where the local store owner (Selen Alpay) has done a great job of putting up some additional funds in the thousands of dollars and made sure equipment is going to be available to these schools to get kids on the ice.”

Aleah Gagnon is an aboriginal education worker at Harwin and said the program is open to grades six and seven students of all skill levels.

She said most importantly, participating students needed to have the right attitude and a solid commitment to their school work.

“It all depended on academic success, they had to make sure they were up to date with their academics. They had to make sure they were behaving properly. It acts as an incentive in creating positive relations between students.”