April 7 proclaimed as Green Shirt Day; Adams Park Ice Centre to be re-named Logan Boulet Arena

City Council passed a resolution in 1999 stating the Mayor’s Office would discontinue the long-standing practice of issuing proclamations, and that was the basis for Mauro’s objection because he didn’t want it to set a precedent.

Councillor Blaine Hyggen introduced the resolution, saying in light of other communities doing this, he felt it was important that the city where Logan grew up would acknowledge the contributions he made.

“This movement has been unbelievable. The Logan Boulet Effect has changed so many lives, and will continue to do so, for that reason I thought it was extremely important.”

Hyggen got a little choked up while reading out background information on Boulet before the vote, and admits he knew that was coming.

“I was mentioning to administration that I knew it was going to be difficult to get through, but I thought it was important to give a background to the selfless acts that have been done throughout our community,” he continued. “You take something that was such a tragedy and turn as minimal amount of good out of something like that as you can.”

The second resolution carried unanimously, as council approved a name change that will see Adams Park Ice Centre in North Lethbridge become Logan Boulet Arena.

The Logan Boulet Effect is now synonymous with organ donation in Canada, as prior to his passing, Boulet decided to become an organ donor.

His decision to be a donor helped benefit six people through his selfless action, and it was one that inspired more than 100,000 Canadians to register as organ donors in the weeks following the Humboldt bus crash as well as countless others across North America.

Again, it was Hyggen authoring the resolution, but this time it came together after a discussion he had with Doug Paisley.

Paisley coached Boulet in minor hockey and felt after discussions with his parents that this was the right path to go down for his legacy, especially considering Logan spent a lot of his youth at Adams Centre.

“I know when I talked to Toby and Bernie, Logan didn’t want just to be remembered as a hockey player, because there was a bright future there, but he will be remembered as a hockey player. He was a junior player with the Humboldt Broncos, from Lethbridge. He was an impactful player in AAA midget for me, and AA midget the year before. You get to know the family, I knew Toby and Bernie for a long time before that, and you have a history with these people,” Paisley said,

The tragedy that was and being in the field he is with his involvement with the Hurricanes, Paisley has seen the recognition some of their athletes have gotten over the years for accomplishments.

“I’m not sure you could ever match the accomplishment [of the Logan Boulet Effect], and I mean no disrespect to anybody that’s ever been honoured in the past or will be in the future, but a quarter of a million people signed up for organ donation. Just considering what that means to us as a community, I thought it was appropriate.

When you talk about where he’s from and how he was raised, he impacted a nation. As his dad said on the top of the cross at the crash site, he impacted a nation by being a giver and not a taker.”

This re-naming will carry Boulet’s legacy on to future generations, but more so than that, Paisley thinks it’s helped to make organ donation a dinner table topic now.

“I wasn’t an organ donor until, my daughter wasn’t, and we both signed up following the tragedy. I didn’t even know that was wife was, so we had never had the table talk. It’s something that was uncomfortable because you didn’t want to think about the death side of giving up your organs, but now it’s second nature, and it’s going to be talked about. I give that family credit, I mean the amount of time they have to answer questions and go into the public, it’s not easy for them. There’s a hole in their life forever, but they have the courage and wherewithal to step up and continue to support and promote organ donation,” Paisley said.

Wearing his official Green Shirt Day shirt, Paisley read off the words ‘Register – Tell Your Family – Be Inspired’ and stated that he’s not sure that he’s ever been more inspired by anybody from Lethbridge.

“I’m not that old a guy, but it’s a pretty inspirational thing for Logan to do. For me it wasn’t something the family asked me about, I mentioned it in passing to the uncle kind of asking if he would soft sell it to Toby. Then I saw Toby at one of the hockey games and mentioned it again and asked if he would mention it to Bernie. Then I saw him at the U Cup, mentioned it again, and he said he talked to her. I told him I’m going to get this done. I’m moving forward, I’ve got a meeting with a councillor, the city manager and the people that can make these things go through, and I want to make sure you guys are on board. They said, ‘we’re 100 percent on board, we don’t want to be the ones bringing it forward, but we’re glad you are, and you have our blessing’. Here we are, and I couldn’t be happier,” Paisley stated.

City Administration will work to make the name change on Adams Park Ice Centre in preparation for next hockey season, where hockey players, skaters and fans both young and old will have a chance to visit this newly named facility.

In addition to the renaming of the rink, City Council has also asked the Arts Committee to explore the commissioning of an art piece in memory of Logan Boulet.

Something like that immediately struck a chord with Paisley.

“Adams is an older rink, it probably could use a facelift, but could you imagine a bronze statue out front of Logan Boulet? It’s got that old picture of the Canadiens in the front lobby there, well maybe they could change it and put a memorial up about what he’s accomplished and where he came from.”

Paisley believes it’s a great way to honour someone who’s had the impact Boulet has, especially when you factor in future plans where the possibility of another rink could be added to that site.

“He’s going to be known for hockey because a lot of his accomplishments were through hockey, but his biggest accomplishment was the gift of life to six individuals and the impact of a quarter million [new organ donors] that’s growing. I mean we’re coming up on the first annual Green Shirt Day that’s going to promote organ donation, and I just think it’s perpetual. I think there could be literally millions of people affected by this.”

by Aaron Mahoney - Lethbridge News Now

April 7 proclaimed as Green Shirt Day; Adams Park Ice Centre to be re-named Logan Boulet Arena

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