18 hours ago
Flin Flon evacuees gather for street hockey game organized by former Bombers captain
Families from Flin Flon gathered at a Winnipeg community centre on Sunday for a street hockey game organized by a former Flin Flon Bombers captain to bring a sense of home as the community remains evacuated due to wildfire.
The northern Manitoba city of 5,000 people, located about 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, was ordered to leave on May 28, the same day the government declared a provincewide state of emergency.
The wildfire near Flin Flin is now the largest currently burning across Manitoba. It is more than 370,000 hectares in size and still out of control, according to the province's most recent fire bulletin on Friday.
On Sunday afternoon, young children and their families gathered at the River Heights Community Centre on Grosvenor Avenue for a free street hockey and soccer game. The families played alongside past and former Bombers players.
Former captain Lucas Fry, who played with the hockey team between 2020 and 2023, said he wanted to organize the event to help support the community that cheered him on for years.
"All these families are from Flin Flon or the surrounding areas and a lot of them I built super strong connections with in my time there," he said, as children as young as five ran around the rink, some wearing Fry jerseys.
"This is just something that I wanted to put on where you can have a little bit of normalcy going on, everybody could come together for a good day and have some fun."
Bombers president Travis Rideout was evacuated with the rest of the community nearly three weeks ago.
"It's been a long time and you know, so much uncertainty back home. But you gotta keep the faith in everyone there that's doing their part to keep everything safe," he said.
Sunday's hockey game, which featured a parade of maroon and white Bombers jerseys, brought a sense of home to Winnipeg, Rideout said.
"Once you're a part of the community of Flin Flon, you're always a part of that community," he said, adding past and present residents, including former Bombers players, will always have a place in the northern Manitoba city.
Fry is now a student at the University of Manitoba, but he said the connections he made during his time in Flin Flon spurred him to put on the event.
He said a parent messaged him on social media, saying her child took all of their hockey gear when the family evacuated. Fry decided to put on the street hockey event to help this child, and other hockey-loving youth like them, have some fun while they're still displaced by wildfires.
"When I was in Flin Flon, I saw firsthand the impact that people like myself, 19-20 year-old men could have on these kids. I saw firsthand the role model you could be for them," Fry said.
"If I could just give them a day to have some fun and connect, that's all that matters to me," he said.
