One of the worst experiences of 11-year-old Carter Severin's life was followed by one of the best.
The young Sudbury native, along with his parents Bart and Laurie, were three of roughly 90,000 people who were evacuated from Fort McMurray close to a month ago.
The Severin family is originally from Sudbury, but moved to Fort McMurray in 2010. On May 3, the family was forced to leave their home behind as wildfires closed in on the city.
“It was a pretty smoke-free day early in the morning, but around noon I heard on the radio that the winds had shifted,” Bart Severin told Sudbury.com
“At around 1:45, I found out that my wife had to leave work so I went home. We packed up one Rubbermaid tote with all of our important stuff like birth certificates, health cards, passports and we headed for Edmonton.”
The family spent two days in Edmonton before making their way back to Sudbury, arriving in the evening on May 6.
Bart and Laurie spent some time catching up with old friends and co-workers, but Carter, who was just five when the family moved to Fort McMurray was left without much to keep him occupied.
That's where RHP Training Centre and Pro-Am Sports came in with a gift that Severin will surely never forget.
“Laurie (Severin) came in here and said she was looking for something for Carter to do,” said Marc Savard, owner of RHP.
“At first she was just thinking we could do some dry-land, off-ice training. He was pretty drained and stressed out from the whole thing so he needed something to keep him busy. I made a few calls and we were able to work something out.”
And that something was a full outfitting in hockey equipment from Pro-Am Sports and an on-ice session with some Sudbury hockey pros at RHP.
“Us and Pro-Am agreed to split the cost for the equipment and I was able to get a few friends and clients who train here in the off-season to come up and surprise Carter. He's just lived one of the worst days of his life, so we wanted to do all we could to give him one of the best.”
The young hockey player was fitted for all of his equipment on May 21 and on May 24 he stepped on to the ice with a group of NHL and AHL players that included Marcus Foligno, Ryan Johnston, Tyler Bertuzzi, Zack Stortini and Andrew Desjardins.
“The Blackhawks are Carter's favourite team,” said Bart. “So you could see that he was pretty excited when he saw Andrew Desjardins. It's just great what everyone did for Carter and that the hockey players all really embraced him.”
“It was awesome when I saw him (Desjardins),” said Carter. “I was pretty starstruck — I really thank those guys for everything they did and for the whole day.”
Carter will continue to take part in training camps at RHP until at least late June, when his dad plans to head back to Fort McMurray to assess the situation. Luckily, the Severin family's home is still standing, but Bary will be flying back to check if there was any smoke or water damage.
RHP will serve as a dropoff location for any donations in support of Fort McMurray during the next two weeks. All donations will be forwarded to Fort McMurray to assist those in need.
