National Hockey League - Hockey Is For Everyone

The Hockey is for Everyone initiative is a component of "The Biggest Assist Happens off the Ice," the National Hockey League's social responsibility program that builds on the League's long-standing tradition of addressing important social issues in North America and around the world.\

View the Hockey is for Everyone Video.

View the Hockey in the Hood V tournament video.

Hockey is for Everyone provides support and unique programming to non-profit youth hockey organizations across North America that are committed to offering children of all backgrounds opportunities to play hockey. The initiative is supported by NHL member clubs, players, NHL alumni, and fans. To date, Hockey is for Everyone has exposed close to 45,000 boys and girls to unique hockey experiences.

 
To celebrate this initiative, the National Hockey League hosts the annual Hockey is for Everyone Month in February. The league-wide initiative includes numerous activities to promote the diversity of the game that involve our clubs, players, alumni, fans, and grass-roots diversity programs, all with the goal of raising awareness and celebrating the growth of the game. Read more.

Columbus Ice Hockey Club

The Columbus Ice Hockey Club is part of the NHL’s Hockey is for Everyone program, established through the NHL Foundation (the NHL’s charitable and community relations organization). It is a major component of the league’s youth hockey programming.

Hockey is for Everyone provides support and unique programming to non-profit youth hockey organizations across North America that are committed to offering children of all backgrounds opportunities to play hockey. Since its inception, Hockey is for Everyone has exposed more than 45,000 boys and girls to unique hockey experiences.

CIHC is one of 39 NHL Hockey is For Everyone programs and is affiliated with the Columbus Blue Jackets organization. We serve over 3,000 youth per year in our Learn to Play Hockey, Learn to Skate, and hockey team programs, with more than 75% of our participants being minority and more than 25% are female. The club offers hockey instruction and teams for children ranging from 5-18 years old from Mini-mite through Midget. We also have a girls team (8-14 year olds.)



CIHC started 1999 and focuses on provided on-ice and off-ice opportunities for youth in the Central Ohio area. In partnership with the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, the NHL, and the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation, CIHC has been providing year-round ice skating and ice hockey instruction for more than 27,000 program participants. We also provide off-ice programming for club participants in the areas of conditioning, academic support, violence prevention, conflict resolution, and community service.

If you are new to the sport of hockey you will find that hockey is a great game to watch, especially in person, and CIHC is a wonderful program for youths who want to learn how to skate or play hockey in a nurturing and team-focused environment. We are lucky to have the best coaches, participants, parents, fans, and donors in central Ohio. Our kids give 100% effort on and off the ice, and we are extremely proud of them.

As the program continues to grow we look forward to representing central Ohio proudly and being ambassadors of goodwill.

Go Ice Eagles!  Read more.

NEWS
For Immediate Release
Contact: Nicole Kraft

Columbus Kids Rock Detroit as part of ‘Hockey in the Hood’

Columbus, Ohio – Nearly 70 kids from across Columbus represented the Columbus Blue Jackets chapter of the National Hockey League’s Hockey is For Everyone Program, the Columbus Ice Hockey Club, at the fifth annual Hockey in the Hood tournament in Detroit, Mich.

Hockey in the Hood is an annual youth hockey tournament hosted by the Detroit Hockey Association, designed to break down stereotypes and provide a high level of competition for inner-city hockey teams. This year’s tournament was held at the Jack Adams Memorial Arena Feb. 13-15, 2009.

The Columbus Ice Hockey Club, known as the Ice Eagles, sent five teams to Detroit--Mini-Mite, Mite/Squirt, Squirt/PeeWee, PeeWee/Bantam and Bantam/Midget—with players ranging in age from age 5 to 18. They joined teams from Chicago, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Buffalo, NY; Pittsburgh and Wasilla, Alaska. The upper-level teams competed for the Willie O’Ree Championship Trophy, named for the man who broke the color barrier in the National Hockey League in 1958.

In addition to the three games won by the Ice Eagles—and two ties--the Columbus team brought home an even more coveted honor--the Chris Chelios Perseverance Award for the club’s founder, John Haferman. The award recognizes a program or person who goes beyond the call of duty in spreading hockey to everyone. Haferman, who works for the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department, began the CIHC program in 1999 with 15 kids, 10 helmets and a few hockey sticks, and has grown it to a city-wide effort with more than 100 kids.

Haferman’s efforts are aided by the invaluable community support received by the Columbus Ice Hockey Club from such entities as the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation, The Chiller LLC, Columbus Parks and Recreation and Navigator Management Partners.

View the Hockey in the Hood V tournament video.