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Skate Drive - A Tribute to Zoey

A teen lost her best friend when Saskatchewan figure skater Zoe Lesy, lost her life in the icy Assiniboine River this past March. Now, Shayanne Bear is creating an ongoing memorial to her friend and fellow skater - a tribute that will bless others.
Skate Tribute
Shayanne Bear, a Grade 11 student at Virden, has initiated a skate and helmet collection in memory of her friend, Zoe Lesy. She wears Zoe’s bracelet and another bracelet, a key to “letting go”, and overcoming grief and loss. PHOTO / ANNE DAVISON, VIRDEN EMPIRE ADVANCE

A teen lost her best friend when Saskatchewan figure skater Zoe Lesy, lost her life in the icy Assiniboine River this past March.

Now, Shayanne Bear is creating an ongoing memorial to her friend and fellow skater - a tribute that will bless others.

Bear is also from Saskatchewan. She has spent her school year attending VCI, living in Virden in order to skate with Cutting Edge Skating School in Virden.

After the accident, Bear had difficulty making it through one day at a time. She now she wants to do something significant to honour her friend.

“I want to get word out of what I’m doing,” say Bear, explaining that she is turning a Grade 11 yearend project into something the whole community can get involved
in, both now and in the years to come.

She is initiating a skate drive - an opportunity for people to drop off used skates, to create a skate lending option at the Arena.

“Within the next couple of weeks I want people to come by, to either the rink or anywhere in town that would be willing to collect skates,” added Bear.

The school project was for a Global Issues class called, “The Community Action Fund Project”. Bear explains the project poses the challenge,
“What can you do for  your community to makeit a more sustainable place?”

Bear says any size of hockey or figure skates are acceptable, and preferably hockey helmets.

But she says she was told by those involved in a skating program in Virden, that there is a big need for bigger sized skates and helmets.

The Grade 11 student got the idea when she talked with Student Support Worker, Wendy Bancescu. “She gave me this idea,” says Bear.

“The biggest issue was storage,” says Bear. The skates need an official storage area and container. Zoe’s father has carpenter skills and has agreed to make a box for the skates.

The rink manager at Tundra Oil & Gas Place was favourable toward the project and agreed the facility could accommodate the ongoing collection of skating equipment.

“Now it’s a matter of getting the news out there,” says Bear.

In the future, anyone who wants to go skating will be able to borrow them at Tundra Oil & Gas Place (skating arena).

“I want people to keep donating, through the years, because I want the program to last,” added Bear, who also envisions small donations such as $2 or $5 will help to sustain the project.

 “I am going to have a little box where people can just drop off money because we’ll need to get the skates sharpened,” says Bear.

The skates and helmets will be free to use, not to take.

“There are lots of new people who don’t have skates. There’s lots of opportunity, with public skating,” says the figure skater.

“Zoe loved to skate - she just loved it,” said Bear. Now, her best friend wants others to have the opportunity to enjoy gliding over the ice as well.

Bear thinks Zoe would be pleased with this trib ute but says, “She never really liked anything [focused on] herself.” She explains, “Zoe wasn’t a
selfish person.”

Drop off locations for the skates and helmets, during the first two weeks of June, include Tundra Oil & Gas Place, Gibson’s of Virden: The Sport & Fashion Place, and VCI.

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