The Benefits of Community Service with Your Hockey Program

Andrew Trimble
02/14/2025
5:36 am

Recently in some online Junior Hockey Discussion groups I’ve seen parents or posters be critical of Junior Hockey Programs that offer up the services of their athletes to assist with community service and volunteer projects. Calls of “The players should get a reduction in their tuition” or “its a waste of their time”… or even “it takes away from their focus on hockey”.

As an owner of a Junior Hockey program, and a coach, I could not disagree with these sentiments more.

Community Service is a huge part of our program with the New England Wolves in Laconia, New Hampshire. When I was a Junior player, I didn’t fully grasp the importance of it, but I had a father who naturally did these activities with his athletes, so I was accustomed to doing them. I went along. Just going along… that was part of the education. As I grew older, I gravitated to them, and continued to do them in my working life, before integrating them into our hockey programs culture.

Community Service projects build teams. They create a greater understanding for your young athletes the importance of the large network of people within your area. They create a positive impact on others, and a greater sense of worth. In many ways, they also can ignite the spark of a career or future work relationship.

They create role models for both the volunteer and the organization you are volunteering your time with. They build confidence in the job you are doing and a feeling of good within your program’s way of life.

Winning season or losing season… it doesn’t matter. The impact and the lessons your athletes can get from doing these activities and projects is far reaching.

I’ve read before that your child will not remember the specific gifts on a particular birthday or holiday, but more so remembers details of family vacations. My family growing up didn’t go to Disney World or elaborate family vacations. My sisters will attest that most vacations were to Historic battlefields (my Dad was a History Teacher) or to visit my Aunt Virginia in Buffalo, NY, but I vividly remember details from these trips more than most. All these pictures in this story were taken within the last few weeks of this post. Players will come back to me years after playing in our program and ask how we got involved with a certain project or to participate in a new project. The impact is real and becomes deeply captured within your conscience. Involvement and participation matter. The act of doing seems to have a greater depth than any material object.

Give more and the rewards will be real.

I know it certainly has with our program here in New Hampshire and I encourage others to do so as well.