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Ice Hockey in Harlem was an outlet for me as a kid. It gave me something I could grab a hold of at a time when I could have been pulled in some very bad directions. It’s hard to narrow things down to once event as this whole program has impacted me every day since I began 30 years ago.

Fondest IHIH memory

“So many life-changing memories that IHIH afforded me! Like Sylvian Ice Hockey camp in Alberta, Canada playing against the Israeli international team @ riverbank. Winning the IHIH Cup with the Blue Devils, my first goal with the Upward fund yellow bees vs the Kings Sharks (1990), playing at MSG to playing 5 great years of hockey with the Harlem Rangers traveling team. It’s hard to choose one but that Sylvian Ice Hockey camp in Alberta, Canada trip was the one that opened my eyes to the world beyond my four-block radius that I grew up in the hood. It sparked motivation to do better and work harder at my dreams.”

“Spent about 6 or 7 years in IHIH. Fondest Memory was winning an essay contest to have dinner with Mike Richter. During that dinner, Mike Richter mentioned how many Ice Skates Mark Messier goes through in a year. I asked what he did with them, he said he just got rid of them. The next week, Mike Richter had a used pair of old Daoust skates. A normal person would put them away and never use them….I wore them immediately!”