Hayley Wickenheiser gets an assist from Canadians everywhere in delivering PPE for front-line health-care workers
"Car!"
Hayley Wickenheiser, along with the unsung heroes from Conquer COVID-19, shouted out the famous street hockey warning Saturday as their personal protective equipment drive kicked off with help from all corners of life.
Wickenheiser was joined by about 20 volunteers from Conquer COVID-19, including Dr. Sohail Gandhi, head of the Ontario Medical Association, to greet donors as they dropped off donations at an indoor drive-thru at the XYZ Storage facility on Eastern Avenue in Toronto.
Before the drive even began, Wickenheiser was heartened by a $1 million donation that came from Thistle Foundation's Fiona McKean and Tobi Luthke, who are also the founders of the Canadian e-commerce company Shopify.
The event kicked off with Premier Doug Ford arriving in a pickup truck to drop off boxes of masks. Shortly afterwards, Canadian Tire showed up with another truck full of hand sanitizer.
Canadian movie star Ryan Reynolds, who befriended Wickenheiser when both were inducted into the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2016, joined the cause last week and made an appearance on Wickenheiser's phone shortly after the drive kicked off.
"Canadians from coast-to-coast, from all over the world, come together every time " I'm just so proud, when I talk about this, I get choked up "" Reynolds said in the video call from New York.
The drive was themed with hockey sticks and Conquer COVID-19 t-shirts, with volunteers tapping the sticks on the ground and shouting out "car," every time a donor drove into the facility.
"This is what you call a true Canadian sport, a true team Canada," Ford said. "This is how we're going to get through the crisis."
Wickenheiser, who is studying in medical school, joined Conquer COVID-19 last weekend after hearing from her friends on the front lines of caregiving during the pandemic.
Within a week, the cause has seen hundreds of thousands of masks and other PPE donated from Canadians everywhere.
"Our first donation today was a woman who drove through and dropped off two masks " that helps a doctor or a front-line worker for two days, it means something," Wickenheiser said.
Considered one of the greatest Canadian hockey players ever, and currently the Toronto Maple Leafs' assistant director of hockey operations, Wickenheiser also got help from Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris, who donated $5,000 while kicking off a challenge for other athletes to match it. The first names on McMorris' challenge were ex-Leafs Dion Phaneuf and Tyler Bozak, as well as Oilers captain Connor McDavid.
By mid-morning, Bobby Hastings, the Leafs assistant equipment manager, showed up with about 10,000 masks.
"He opened up his house, he did it quietly, like those guys (equipment managers) do, and just took in donations " he's dropping them off to us now, another unsung hero," Wickenheiser said.
The Conquer COVID-19 team, which began with a grassroots effort from University of Toronto medical students, and has grown into a group of over 80, including doctors, lawyers, and other volunteers, plans to work with Ford to distribute the PPE.
"We want to make sure we're not duplicating the government's efforts, if the government is helping at hospitals, then we want to get to long-term care homes " we know the need is great there, and we just want to help where help is needed, without the red tape," said Conquer COVID-19's Guri Pannu.
"We started with five people," added Dr. Ruby Alvi. "It's just people who came together, I don't know everyone here, I'm just meeting them as we go. A lot of the drop-offs (last week) were done by medical students, and they were still doing their exams ""
Wickenheiser stood before a half dozen TV cameras to deliver the message of need, and to thank everyone for volunteering.
Ford promised to work with the team, and to marshal trucks and aircraft, if needed, to deliver the PPE.
Wickenheiser, the six time Olympian and four-time gold medallist, has been moved by the donations and overall response to the PPE drive.
"This is the most important team I've ever played for."
Mark Zwolinski is a sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @markzwol