Jan. 17, 2024
by Eric Hammerstrom
If smiles could melt snow, there wouldn’t have been any shoveling needed at Clark Park Rink in Southwest Detroit this past weekend. For each inch of snow that accumulated during a stormy weekend, there were hundreds of smiles from a group of visiting players from Ice Hockey in Harlem (IHIH) and kids from the Clark Park Neighborhood who participated in “The Big Apple to Motor City Tour” over Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday weekend.
When the group’s rainbow-colored school bus pulled into the parking lot at Clark Park Friday night, arena staff and volunteers were fighting a losing battle as snow piled up on the rink. The Harlem contingent laced up their skates, grabbed shovels as a unit, and defeated the elements, skating late into the evening. They returned Saturday morning for a bit more shoveling, followed by a whole lot of hockey.
“This weekend is the culmination of years of hard work, of kids challenging themselves, being inspired, and us as an organization continuing to bring a nontraditional sport to our community, to benefit our community from the life skills learned through it, but also the fun of having the sport and learning the sport of ice hockey,” said Malik Garvin, IHIH Executive Director.
Throughout the weekend, players from IHIH and Clark Park practiced together, scrimmaged, and heard words of inspiration from NHL Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award Winner Rico Phillips and Willie O’Ree Award nominee Anthony Benevides, who is director of the Clark Park Coalition.
Phillips (who is currently the Director of Cultural Diversity and Inclusion for the Ontario Hockey League) explained that there are an incredible and growing number of people of color involved in ice hockey and encouraged players to think about life in the hockey world after they stop playing competitively. He gave examples such as Kim Davis, Saroya Tinker, Anthony Stewart, Mike Grier and many others, stating that there are many ways to contribute to the game. He also made specific references to several members of The Carnegie Initiative (The CI), citing contributions made to the women’s game by Angela James, Sarah Nurse, and Brian Burke, while also mentioning Ted Nolan’s contributions to First Nations hockey.
Garvin is the perfect example of what programs like IHIH and the Clark Park Coalition can accomplish. He was once a player himself but is now giving back to the next generation of kids from Harlem.
“Ice hockey and Ice Hockey in Harlem offered me a lot of life opportunities in both ice hockey and education,” added Garvin, who started skating at age three and joined IHIH when he was four. “And the combination made me into the person that I am today and helped me be the most successful I could be. And I take the life lessons that I learned from this program, from the sport, from the places I’ve been and I use it to continually improve in my daily life, to take the things that I learn from places I’ve been and come back and uplift my community with the things that I’ve learned.”
Along with J.J. Velez, IHIH, Garvin, and others, they raised more than $35,000 to make the weekend of events a reality. Velez said that funds left over from this year’s trip will be used to help pay for next year, when the kids from Clark Park in Detroit will board a bus and visit Harlem.
On Sunday morning, the University of Michigan Wolverines Women’s Hockey Team and six members of the U of M’s Men’s squad helped coach the Harlem and Southwest Detroit players during practice, then mingled with them and gathered for photos before the final scrimmage of the weekend.
Kim Gallagher, Associate Coaching Chief for the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association, also attended the practices and games, along with The CI Board Member Chi Yin Tse, who spent the weekend in the Detroit area for his work as Director of Hockey Operations for the Tulsa Ice Centers.
“And one of the greatest things is, you know, we have such a rich hockey history and rich hockey here (in Michigan) at the grassroots level, all the way up to the collegiate level, and having players from the University of Michigan women’s hockey team at this event is fantastic,” said Gallagher.
“I think it’s a testament to our growth of the sport and coach Jenna Trubiano for University of Michigan as someone who does help lead our women’s hockey initiative,” she added. “I’m very happy to have women leaders in our sport, in our backyard here.”
Gallagher said her time on the ice with the players and coaches from Harlem and Clark Park was special, “It’s so rewarding. Being out here last night with them… out here in the freezing weather with the snow coming down. And they said, ‘we want to play under the lights, coach.’”
The weekend wrapped up with the Harlem contingent visiting the University of Michigan and attending a Wolverine Women’s Hockey game before the group boarded the rainbow bus for the return trip to Harlem.
Pictured: J.J. Velez and a UofM Men’s Hockey player
About the Author: Eric Hammerstrom is The CI’s Communications Advisor who volunteered his time to help with the event, including the production of a live feed of the games.
VIDEOS:
Interview: Kim Gallagher (Jan. 14, 2024)
Interview: Chi Yin Tse (Jan. 14, 2024)
Interview: Malik Garvin (Jan. 13, 2024)
RELATED STORY:
In honor of MLK Day, the Clark Park Coalition teams up with Ice Hockey of Harlem. The goal of the program is to expand access to free youth hockey (WXYZ – Detroit)