PROJECT 1:  Mongolia, February 2015

 

Here's an incredible project by Boe & Nate Leslie. I met Coach Boe Leslie in a clinic he hosted in NYC. He and his brother Nate have an online training & development program that teams use throughout the world, including the Mongolian National Team.

 

At the end of February, we will go to Mongolia to help while they film a documentary about Mongolian hockey - The Ice at the End of the Earth. Here’s some information from their Kickstarter campaign:

 

There are 900 hockey players in Mongolia but not nearly as many pairs of skates. Getting equipment is next to impossible, especially youth sizes. Young players have no option but to wear senior skates, usually hand-me-downs with a long lineage of previous owners. The bitter cold mid season prevents the youngest players from being able to lace up their oversized skates at all. And those old Soviet rinks? All outdoors, all natural ice subjected to the weather. Reliant on consistently cold temperatures, a working hose & a small army of crazy-dedicated players to shovel & scrape. Here's Dave Bidini’s Tropic of Hockey clip in Mongolia, the same group we'll visit in February. Mongolia is notable for one reason...they sit dead last in the world rankings, 49th of 49. The Mongolian National Team once lost to Kazakhstan 42-0...But there was a silver lining. At least Mongolia got to play...The nation declines tournament invitations citing a lack of equipment & funds.

 

Please join me in helping these players & the world hear their story. We are collecting equipment and funds to help the under-resourced players. Anything is appreciated & we'll make sure that it gets to players who love the game like us, but don’t have equipment.Thank you for reading & I hope you will help us help the Mongolian players!