Photo from the Iceberg Tournament Facebook page.

By Curtis Galbraith

Community

Biggest edition of the Iceberg Tournament fundraiser starts Thursday

Mar 28, 2023 | 6:00 AM

A hockey tournament that raises money to support kids’ mental health gets going this week.

The first games at the 6th Iceberg Tournament start at 5:00 p.m. Thursday at the Crosslink County Sportsplex.

Fourteen teams from Alberta, B.C., and the Northwest Territories are taking part.

Co-coordinator Tara Melezko says this is the biggest turnout yet.

“(When) we started, we had six teams (then) we had eight, then COVID hit. Last year, we had, I believe 10 teams. Every year, we really hope to grow.”

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“This year is especially exciting because we’ve got four home teams … our own Grande Prairie Knights.”

The money raised will be given to the Grande Prairie Public, Catholic, and Peace Wapiti School Divisions. It will help pay for educational psychology exams, which can cost at least $2,000 and may cost $2,500 or $3,000.

Melezko says this started when she was told her own kids need to have extra testing done to find out why they were not succeeding at school.

“Their doctor said ‘Well, they’re going to need ed. psych. evaluations and I said well, what’s an ed. psych.?’ Once he explained to me what it is … it diagnoses and can help diagnose things like ADHD. It can help diagnose learning disabilities.”

Melezko adds these tests are also used to determine if some kids are gifted children and not doing well at school because they are bored.

She thinks every kid should have one.

“These really help narrow down what’s going on with your child, to be able to see is their reading comprehension bad? Is (it) their processing speed? Are you talking 100 words a minute at them and they’re only taking in every 25th word?”

Melezko says she wants to thank the kids, parents and volunteers who work hard to make the tournament happen. She also wanted to say a big thanks to her brother, who helps run it with her.

“On a whim one year, we said ‘Hey, what if we did this?’ He really makes it happen every year. I definitely couldn’t do it without him.”

An online 50/50 draw is open on the Iceberg Tournament’s website. A raffle is also being held.

The teams are all U15 Tier 3. Games start at 5:00 p.m. Thursday, and 8:00 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The gold medal game is at 1:15 Sunday afternoon. All the games are being played at the Crosslink County Sportsplex.

There is a skills competition at 3:00 p.m. Saturday which Melezko says is always “super-fun” for the kids.

Admission is free.