The touching story of an emptied piggybank fills the heart of former Humboldt Broncos President Kevin Garinger.
The recollection dates back to April of 2018 — shortly after a devastating bus accident involving the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team claimed 16 lives and injured the other 13 passengers.
“So many people reached out to us,” Garinger recalls. “People were doing everything they possibly could.
“There was a little girl who gave her grandfather a little bag of money ‘to give to Mr. Garinger to donate to the Humboldt Broncos.’ This is a seven-year-old child who gave us everything she had in her savings. That’s how far the reach went.”
The memories are so exacting, so vivid, that it often seems like mere minutes have elapsed since the Broncos’ bus collided with a semi-trailer truck on April 6, 2018 — seven years ago today — while the team was approaching Nipawin for a playoff game against the Hawks.
“It was one of those significant tragedies, like 9/11 or the Kennedy assassination, where you go, ‘Where were you when that happened? Where were you when the world stopped turning?’ ” Garinger reflects. “You never forget those things. They’re etched in your memory.
“After that, you get to that place of working through your emotions. There’s the extreme emotion at the beginning and, of course, the emotion that comes from coming to grips with what your world is going to look like after this.
“You get all this support coming in. You have all these organizations and all these people reaching out — the CFL, the NHL, the NBA, Major League Baseball. Right away, organizations like that are contacting you and being involved. There are people like Garth Brooks, Michael Strahan and Tom Brady.”
Garinger is quick to accentuate support offered and provided by the Saskatchewan Roughriders — like the Broncos, a beloved community-owned sports franchise.
“They’re trying to run a professional organization as massive as the Saskatchewan Roughriders and they’re also doing all this outreach to make sure that they’re trying to help a community in mourning,” Garinger says.
“That was just the nature of what people were trying to do. They were just trying to give us support.”
On June 3, 2018, the Roughriders travelled to Humboldt from Saskatoon — where training camp was being held — to conduct a walk-through practice at the Glenn Hall Park football field.
The Green and White also hosted a barbecue lunch for the community. As well, the players spent 90 minutes signing autographs, posing for photos and chatting with fans.
“All those things that happened come back vividly to you because it meant so much to the community and everybody who was dealing with the aftermath,” Garinger says.
“And then to bring everybody in and organize that event was unbelievable. They took on a lot of that responsibility so we didn’t have to. We were volunteers, so the more that organizations like that did those things, it just took a load off our shoulders.
“To be a part of it and to see your beloved Roughriders do what they did was just unbelievable.”
As well, the Roughriders dedicated a regular-season CFL game to the Broncos and their community. The “Humboldt Strong” game, featuring the Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes, was held at Mosaic Stadium on June 30, 2018.
“The Riders brought families together from across the country,” Garinger says. “They put them in hotels so they could be together and did all those things. There were the pins and the T-shirts and other things the Riders jumped on-board with.
“It was a huge-selling item, which raised money to help support those in need during that time.”
For the “Humboldt Strong” game, the Roughriders played host to the Broncos, immediate and billet family members, officials from the organization and from the Humboldt community, and first responders who assisted the victims on April 6, 2018.
Merchandise produced and distributed by the Roughriders helped to raise money for the Humboldt Broncos Community Fund.
“The Riders stepped up and tried to help a province heal — and to help a country heal,” Garinger says. “That’s just the nature of what organizations like the Riders do.
“I have nothing but the highest regard for what took place after that tragedy and for everybody who stepped up and just wanted to help. That’s all they wanted to do.
“They just wanted to do the best they could to try to make sure that the families who were dealing with it most directly could try to get through that in the best possible way.”
Such an approach could have been borrowed from the playbook of the late Broncos Head Coach and General Manager, Darcy Haugan.
“Just prior to the accident, Darcy had the kids out shovelling my driveway and other billet parents’ driveways — and they did it willingly,” Garinger says.
“There was a big snowfall just prior to April 6. People were snowed in. The kids went to the rink and Darcy said, ‘Hey, guys. Go home and get your snow mitts and your jackets and whatever else you need. We’re going to shovel out this community and we’re going to start with your billet parents.’ Then they put it on the radio that, ‘Whoever needs any help, the Broncos are here to help you.’
“That was a day when they were supposed to have practice, but that was what they were going to do for the community. It was important for Darcy to help these young men understand that it was the sacrifice of so many that brought them to this place.
“Darcy wanted them to understand that we need to give back and do these kinds of things. We had many a conversation with him talking about how he wanted to build young men with character.
“Hockey was secondary. Be a great man first and then you can be a great hockey player.”
The message was clearly absorbed and appreciated, as evidenced by Garinger’s praise for everyone who was aboard the Broncos’ bus on that fateful day.
“You didn’t get better people than they are today or than those who are remembered,” says the Horizon School Division’s 11th-year Director of Education/CEO, who stepped down as the Broncos’ President in August of 2018.
“They’re remembered very fondly because that’s how they were. They were really great people who cared deeply about their community. Every one of them was an amazing young human being or an amazing coach.”
