Greetings Membership, from the new South Kent Minor Hockey Association
Thank you all for your ongoing interest and support of SKMHA’s initiatives, including the online POLL to select an Association nickname.
The POLL was designed to be impartial and open to all Members. The purpose of the POLL was to first canvas Membership for name ideas and to promote inclusion into the process. The names included in the online POLL, were representative of the number of submissions received from BMHA and RMHA Members, through the initial collection for name ideas.
After careful review and considerable consultation with the entire SKMHA Board of Directors and Members from our community, it has been decided that the name ‘Chiefs’ is not a suitable name to represent minor hockey. As result, the mascot name POLL has temporarily been removed from the website.
We understand that all who submitted “Chiefs” as a possible Nickname intended no offense. We also appreciate Chiefs was a very popular name throughout our Membership.
After considerable discussion and review, we now better understand and respect the name ‘Chiefs’ to hold several cultural meanings and connotation. Not all positive.
It was clear the name ‘Chiefs’ was important to many who cheered the Juveniles on to their win of the OMHA championship last year, and we do not wish to take anything away from that accomplishment.
It has come to our attention that the use of Native American terms, figures and symbols has created mascot controversy through Sport. As a Board, we seek to be respectful to all Communities and all Community Members, and we feel it is best to set a positive example for our youth, and to support the OMHA code of conduct that requires all Associations to respect all Community Members.
SKMHA respects our First Nation Communities as we equally respect all Communities, including our Membership Community.It is agreed, our new Association has an excellent opportunity to strengthen our relations as we join-together as Communities, and to move forward as we all work together.
Our collective goal is to foster a positive environment for our kids so we may all enjoy the great sport of hockey.
As many know, The Juvenile “Chiefs” operated independently last year, similar to how many Junior Clubs operate. It is our understanding they have elected to keep their name, and will retain their independence from South Kent Minor Hockey. They will continue to make decisions related to their operations separate from SKMHA. We, the Board of South Kent Minor Hockey, wish them great success.
SKMHA MEMBERSHIP WE NEED YOUR HELP, AGAIN
We now need to quickly rethink our mascot name and we want to encourage everyone to email your mascot suggestions in to the email address: [email protected]
We will accept name Submissions until 20th of June when the Board will review the submissions once again and we will move forward, from there.
South Kent Minor Hockey Association is new and growing. The Board is passionate about hockey and making decisions, on behalf of everyone involved. We will continue to try our best to make South Kent Minor Hockey a place for our youth to learn sportsmanship, respect and most importantly a place to have fun.
Thank you & sincerely,
Scott Wilson
Co-President
South Kent Minor Hockey Association