The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation will be front and centre during the Flin Flon Bombers' Saturday night home game. The club will wear special commemorative uniforms, welcome back a former captain and raise money for an Indigenous charity.
The team will play its first home game since the day, which took place Sept. 30, on Oct. 2 against the La Ronge Ice Wolves. While the Bombers didn't play on the day itself, the team will find a novel way to support reconciliation. The team will wear special orange sweaters - similar for the shirts worn on Orange Shirt Day, also observed Sept. 30 - for the game, auctioning them after the game to raise money for the Legacy of Hope Foundation.
"[During] Saturday's game against the Ice Wolves, the Bombers will take time to remember those lives affected by the ongoing tragic discoveries of unmarked graves on the sites of former residential schools," reads a statement from the team.
For the game, the Bombers will also welcome back Harley Garrioch, the team's captain during the 2008-09 season, for a ceremonial pregame puck drop. A fan favourite for his scrappy play and take-no-prisoners attitude, Garrioch played 93 games in maroon and white, racking up over 350 penalty minutes, scoring 42 points as a defenceman and earning an NCAA scholarship after leaving the Bombers. Garrioch, who is originally from Cross Lake, is a member of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation.
The Legacy of Hope Foundation is a charitable organization aimed at promoting reconciliation and education of Indigenous issues and residential schools.
"The LHF’s goal is to educate and raise awareness about the history and existing intergenerational impacts of the residential school system and subsequent Sixties' Scoop on Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) survivors, their descendants and their communities to promote healing and reconciliation," reads the Legacy of Hope website.
