A Lake Country man is taking a once in a lifetime trip to play a Guinness World Record hockey game.
Kyle Volk is headed to northern India with his friend Misty Seastrom Jan. 29 to play a game of hockey that will break a record for games played at a high elevation and also help under-served youth get access to a sport so many Canadians take for granted.
“It’s going to be quite a trip,” said Volk, noting that they will first have to fly to Germany, then after a brief lay-over they’ll go to New Dehli. From there they will move up the Himalayas to a town called Leh, which is at 3,500 metres elevation in the Himalayas.
“We will spend three days there to acclimatize and play a few exhibition games with the local team,” said Volk. From there they will travel about six hours by bus into the Ladakh region where we will break the Guinness record on a full size rink at 4,000 metres they have constructed.
Volk embarked on the adventure with a love of the sport in mind, but it’s the idea of bringing something new to a community far from home that’s really exciting him.
“I like the idea of being able to bring the sport to a country where you would never think it would exist,” said Volk. “Hockey in the Himalayas? I love the game of hockey and it’s a cool idea to share what we know with them.”
For the trip they want to raise some funds that will allow the skating to continue long after they’ve left.
“The GoFundMe has been set up because it is very hard to get proper gear for the locals, since hockey is an odd sport to be played in India,” said Volk, adding that they first raised $1,000 and now they’re trying to raise $1,500.
“Misty and I are the only players from Kelowna and Calgary going as far as we know so we decided we would like to contribute some gear to the locals on behalf of our country and community. The goal is to raise enough money so we can buy a few sets of gear that we will play in and then donate to the locals of Leh.”
Any of the extra funds raised will go to getting as much sticks/tape/gear as possible and maybe a few pieces of Team Canada apparel as gifts. There will be some rewards for anyone who wants to go above and beyond and donate over $100.
“For anyone that donates over $100 we will have a thank you package put together including a puck from event, photo with the local team, and a thank you note. Anyone who donates over $200 we’ll get a jersey from the event and try and get it autographed by the India team, as well as a picture and thank you note,” he said. “We appreciate any kind of donation though as anything helps to this cause.”
For more information on the event go to www.hockeyfoundation.com.
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