The Olds Stingers midget lacrosse team helped out their fellow competitors from High River, which was devastated by flooding last month, during a tournament in Calgary over the weekend of June 29 to July 1.
Gary Gaudette, a coach for the Stingers, said once team officials in Olds realized that the High River team would be making the trip, parents and others affiliated with the Olds Lacrosse Association collected $860 in donations for the High River team and presented it to team officials when the two teams played on June 29. Because the High River team was also without uniforms, the Stingers lent them their spare set of jerseys for use during the tournament.
“We just found out that they were still coming (to the tournament) and we decided to take donations for them and present it to them at their first game. It was kind of neat,” Gaudette said.
The Chex Sports Lacrosse Store in Calgary was also taking up a collection of gently-used gear to donate to the High River players.
The Stingers finished 2-3 at the tournament, and ended up in sixth place out of 11 teams in the midget division. Teams came from as far away as Prince George and California. In all, there were 80 teams from the novice through midget divisions participating in the tournament.