Surrey hockey leader becomes finalist for NHL community hero award

🔊 Listen to Post

A Surrey man is among six finalists for the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award, which the public can vote on until May 19.

Mark Burgin, the founder and director of the kids’ sports non-profit Diversity Athletics Society and a BC Hockey board member, has a shot of winning the award which is dedicated to someone who has left a positive impact through hockey.

Besides being on the board and the chair of risk management at BC Hockey, Burgin is also in its equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) workgroup. Dee McWatters, a fellow EDI group member, nominated him for the award. Soon after, the NHL called him to let him know he was being considered and later reached out to inform him he was a finalist.

“It’s funny, I got kind of choked up. I almost cried on them, on the call, because I didn’t think this was going to happen at all,” Burgin says. “And then from there, it just started to snowball and take on a life of its own.” 

First presented in the 2017-18 season, the annual award is named after Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first Black player in 1958. There are three Canadian and three U.S. finalists, and for the second year, there will be two winners from both countries who will each win a $25,000 prize to be donated to a charity of their choice. The remaining finalists will each receive $5,000 for a charity they choose.

Burgin says he created Diversity Athletics Society in 2022 after coaching young athletes for years in many sports, including hockey, football, and soccer, and having players and parents approach him for guidance. He decided the best way to help was by starting a non-profit to get others on board in raising as much money as possible to serve as many kids as he can.

Diversity Athletics Society offers support, mentorships, and resources for youth facing financial, social, cultural, or other barriers.

“When you’re a child, all you have are school and sports. Now imagine us as adults [where] 50 per cent of what you do is taken away,” Burgin says. 

“[People] talk about mental toughness, people talk about mental health. Well, that’s the mental health that we owe kids is to keep them active and doing the things that they want to do and they enjoy.”

A memory that stands out to Burgin was receiving an email from a young hockey player in New York about how he was running out of opportunities and his family did not have the money to help him. Burgin watched a video of him playing online and reviewed his history and responded with pointers on how he could improve.

The player worked on the areas Burgin told him to and played a tournament in Pittsburgh. Once he got back, a junior team in Connecticut reached out to him to join their team, and he accepted. The player then wrote back to Burgin to thank him for his help.

“Hockey’s become a very expensive sport,” Burgin says.

“A lot of times, kids fall through the cracks because maybe a specific family can’t afford it, and a specific trainer doesn’t want to spend the time because they want to make money. And we all have to make money, but I find that I’ve come across a lot of kids who, regardless of race, just fall through the cracks because nobody wants to take the time to actually get them up to speed.”

While Burgin finds 99 per cent of hockey is awesome, there are still lots of areas that need to be addressed, with inclusion being an important one.

“You think of all the sports, whether it be baseball, football, or soccer, those sports are pretty inclusive sports and … their athletes get paid a lot of money. Hockey is very limited and it’s not as inclusive, which tells you the growth of the sport. If it’s not going to be inclusive, it’s not going to grow much,” Burgin says.

“So in order for the sport to grow … we have to be inclusive of young girls, young boys, different races because that’s the only way the sport of hockey is going to grow.”

Although Burgin has not decided which charity he would donate to if he won the top $25,000 prize, he plans for it to go somewhere youth related, adding that winning the award would be a big honour.

“Obviously, it’d be huge for us, give us some visibility, so people can see what we’re doing, and maybe get involved with us so we can really impact and change sports and kids’ lives,” he says. 

Apart from the public, O’Ree and executives from the NHL and Hyundai, the award’s sponsor, will also cast their votes. The award winners will be announced in June.

For more information and to vote, visit https://bitly.cx/dWAs.