Hope for Hockey Class
Written by Brandon Wright
July 14th, 2025
As Chief of Staff for the Resource Council of Western New York, Keri is used to juggling several responsibilities. RCWNY offers community resources in the Greater Buffalo area such as after school programs, summer camps, senior programming, farmers markets and more. So when Keri was approached to run a youth program in danger of shutting down, it was an easy decision for her. She wanted to continue to give kids a chance to play a sport which is expensive to start: ice hockey.
When Keri inherited the program, she also inherited the program’s equipment, which included old pairs of skates, and pants and shoulder pads too big for 8-12 year olds. With a month to go before puck drop, Keri needed to learn about hockey equipment as quickly as possible. When Keri and her coaches did their first round of hockey fittings, very few items fit the children. She began to panic when she thought about how much equipment one child would need for hockey and how much it’d cost.
“We didn’t have much of a budget as far as buying new equipment,” said Keri “so we tried to order what we could like off of eBay and, you know, just looking on Facebook Marketplace and things like that, trying to find stuff, and it just wasn’t cutting it.”
One of her board members suggested applying to Leveling the Playing Field. Once approved, RCWNY received a “lifetime membership” of free sports equipment. On her first visit to the LPF WNY warehouse, she was blown away by how much equipment was available. Keri picked up two carloads worth of equipment on her first visit. She also learned more about hockey equipment such as the purpose of neck guards, how to put on hockey socks, and more. All players received a full bag of equipment for practice, in addition to jerseys provided by RCWNY.
“Leveling the Playing Field was a life saver, game changer, everything,” recalled Keri. “When I got there, I was welcomed by these lovely people who said I can pick whatever I want. I was like, ‘I have 38 kids that I’m trying to outfit’ and they said it was fine. So it was really cool!”
Of the 38 kids signed up to participate in the hockey class, only one child had previous experience on the ice. None of the others had ever been on a pair of ice skates, including Tru. In the beginning, Tru wasn’t excited about stepping on the ice and didn’t really want to be there, but after a couple weeks, she quickly became one of the best skaters in the program. Keri and her coaches were blown away. Tru was a natural, despite zero ice or roller skating experience before signing up for the class. By the end of the 13 week session, she whipped around the rink and was an inspiration for the other kids. All she needed was the proper equipment.
“I think it all comes down to if your skates fit right, and your pants fit right, and you have the right equipment. That makes all the difference.”
Across 13 weeks, Keri’s first hockey class had a 95% participation rate, which remains one of her most successful programs at RCWNY to date. She was able to use extra funds from not needing to buy equipment to cover ice time at Nichols Ice Rink, and provide special awards and prize bags to each child at the end of year banquet, including pucks from the Buffalo Sabres.
“We don’t have to worry about our budget, and an underrated aspect is getting this equipment for free. So the money you were spending to buy things online, or run out to a sporting goods store, you can take it and put it towards something else.”
Now, Keri anticipates more kids signing up to play hockey later this year. She has plenty of equipment for next season’s fittings and a year’s worth of youth hockey experience and exciting memories. She has full confidence she’ll make additional trips to LPF to grab more inventory she needs.
“It was a life changing experience,” said Keri. “For me, seeing 38 children from our community on the ice at Nichols Ice Rink was amazing. It wasn’t really going to happen if I didn’t get that equipment from Leveling the Playing Field.”
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Here are ways to get involved with LPF:
