MONTREAL (AP) — Sean Bérubé mentioned he thought it was a joke when he was first requested to assist assemble a workforce of Ukrainian preteen refugees, displaced by warfare and unfold out throughout Europe, to play in a famend Quebec Metropolis hockey match.
Bérubé, a businessman from the Quebec Metropolis area, was having a beer in Bucharest final March with Evgheniy Pysarenko, whom he performed hockey with in Ukraine as a teen.
The businessman — with the assistance of Pysarenko — had simply traveled to Ukraine to assist his former Ukrainian hockey coach and the coach’s household flee the Russian invasion. To indicate his gratitude, Bérubé mentioned he owed Pysarenko a beer.
“Then he (Pysarenko) mentioned, ’No, I’ve bought a special factor to ask you. I’ve a special favor.’”
That favor morphed right into a mission, culminating with journey visas to Canada for a gaggle of 11- and 12-year-olds from Ukraine to play within the Quebec Worldwide Peewee Hockey Event, which has hosted greats akin to Wayne Gretzky and Man Lafleur.
The Ukrainian workforce is scheduled to take to the ice on the Videotron Centre on Feb. 11 to play the Junior Bruins from Massachusetts.
“My thrill is to see them smile after all of the mess and all the difficulty they’ve been via for the previous couple of months,” Bérubé mentioned this week earlier than heading to Europe.
The most important impediment to getting them in Canada was the paperwork, Bérubé mentioned. The boys had been dwelling with their moms in varied European international locations, whereas their fathers had been on the entrance traces preventing the Russian invasion.
“So to get the signature for his or her mom — that was the straightforward half,” Bérubé mentioned. “However probably the most tough half was to get the signature from the fathers … (they) are all on the battlefield … so we had via a courier service to get them to signal.”
Pysarenko, talking from Romania, mentioned he looked for Ukrainian coaches and put collectively a listing of potential gamers earlier than he contacted Bérubé, who put up his personal cash to deliver the youngsters to Quebec.
As of this week, Bérubé was nonetheless finalizing tickets and journey insurance coverage and ensuring households in Quebec Metropolis are able to host the boys.
“I wish to give again to Ukraine,” Bérubé mentioned. “, I had such a good time after I went there as a teen, so I really feel it’s my obligation.”
Tryouts had been held over Christmas in Romania. Pysarenko mentioned a few of the boys knew one another, both as former teammates or opponents. They may collect once more in Romania later this week, touring from locations like Latvia, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary, earlier than they fly to Montreal on Feb. 1 and in the end journey to Quebec Metropolis.
“The primary objective is to indicate these children that something is feasible, that goals can come true even when it’s a tough time again dwelling and it’s warfare,” Pysarenko mentioned. “They should imagine in a greater future, and they are often an instance for different folks everywhere in the world.”
Bérubé was heading to Europe to select up 4 gamers on the Ukraine-Romania border. Two children are initially from Kherson, which spent months underneath Russian occupation, and two others from Odesa, which has additionally been bombed.
At the least one participant has misplaced his father to the warfare. In getting ready a participant’s visa utility, Bérubé observed that solely his mom’s signature was included.
“I requested her if she has a divorce certificates or one thing and he or she didn’t say a factor to me and simply despatched me again the loss of life certificates for the daddy. I checked out it and it simply occurred a couple of months in the past,” Bérubé mentioned.
Pysarenko performed within the Quebec match in 1993, a few years after Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union.
“It wasn’t such a straightforward life for us, however it was very, essential to go to Canada, take a giant step, see the world, see hockey,” Pysarenko recalled.
Patrick Dom, common supervisor of the Quebec match, which runs from Feb. 8-19, mentioned he might have by no means imagined the kind of response generated by the Ukrainian workforce’s participation. The presales for Feb. 11 — when the Ukraine workforce first hits the ice — have damaged data, he mentioned.
“If for the time that they’re going to be right here, they only can overlook what’s occurring over there and the place they dwell … that’s what we would like,” Dom mentioned.
“They may keep in mind this for the remainder of their life.”
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