INNISFAIL - The Innisfail Minor Hockey Association (IMHA) will soon have a huge annual "forever" boost for future coaching development due to the rapid success of the Larry Reid Memorial Coaching Development Fund.
The initiative was set up two years ago by the 13 surviving members of the 1962-63 Innisfail Pontiacs, a midget level hockey team that was coached by Innisfailian Larry Reid, who became a legend in town, the region and across Alberta for his dedication to minor hockey.
A former Innisfail Eagles player, coach and general manager, Reid was even invited to China in the 1980s to coach junior hockey teams, and was recognized in 2007 as one of minor hockey's Top 100 contributors in Alberta during the previous 100 years.
Reid passed away in 2016. His former Pontiac players immediately pursued a vision they had to honour the memory of their former coach, and the following year that vision became a reality with the creation of the coaching development fund (LRMCDF) in Larry Reid's name.
"The intent (of the fund) is that it makes better coaches, which in turn makes better players. The greater the skill of the coach the better the player should become, and you got happier kids on the ice too," said alumni member Vern Fox, who now resides in Coquitlam, B.C.
Fox was in Innisfail last weekend with several other alumni members for a reunion, and a press conference to give a two-year update on the LRMCDF. There was also the unveiling of a Larry Reid tribute board that will be hung in the Innnisfail Arena, and to announce a signed agreement between the foundation and IMHA that a $3,400 coaching development grant will be awarded every year. Several members of Reid's family were in attendance, including wife Helen, son Scott, and son David and his family.
When alumni members began their mission in 2017 to create the LRMCDF they started with "nothing" financially. "Except the alumni coming together and saying, 'yeah, we'll throw some money in it,''' said Fox. But an overwhelming response of donations and pledges meant their initiative needed more than a large sum of money and a bank account. They created the 1962-63 Innisfail Pontiacs Alumni Foundation, legally incorporated last year under the Government of Alberta Societies Act.
For the past two years the growing fund has allowed the alumni to give the IMHA grants totalling just over $3,900 for coaching development but soon the structure of the new foundation will produce annual $3,400 grants to the IMHA.
To do that alumni members set a foundation monetary target of $70,000, and as of June 30 of this year they are nearly there. They had collected $49,736 in donations, with another $13,625 in current outstanding pledges. Another $1,000 was collected this past weekend to bring the fund's total value to $64,361 and leaving just over $5,600 short of their goal.
"If we can invest that $70,000 at the same rate of return as we are getting now we can generate an annual grant ($3,400) to Innisfail Minor Hockey Association forever, in perpetuity, forever," said Fox, the treasurer of the foundation. "The principal is just at ($70,000) and it will keep earning money which will be used to go to minor hockey."
As for the rapid success of the alumni's initiative Fox noted there was positive local support right from the start.
"The people involved in minor hockey support it. Ex-Innisfail Eagles support it. The executive of minor hockey definitely did. The current executive of the Innisfail Eagles supported it," said Fox. "The hockey community around here were very happy to see something like this set up."
