Montreal Juniors launch Score With School program at WHS

The Montreal Juniors of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League launched a series of visits tied to their Score With School Program at Westmount High School on Oct. 15.

Goaltender Jean-Francois Bérube, a draft choice of the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, was joined by teammates Matthew Brenton, Trevor Parkes and David Stitch. Their “stay in school” message was conveyed to the packed gymnasium of students. They then participated in a floor hockey game against a group of Westmount High students. Upon the conclusion of the game, which included a shootout, students lined up for autographs and to ask questions.

The English Montreal School Board is officially part of the program. In addition to Westmount High, other EMSB schools involved are St. Gabriel Elementary School in Point St. Charles, the Alternative High School network (composed of nine schools), John F. Kennedy High School in St. Michel, Royal Vale in NDG and James Lyng High School and Adult Centre in St. Henri. Each school gets four season tickets per game and received a larger batch of seats for games in September. The Juniors note that they are proud of the fact that off the ice they place a lot of importance on education. Each player is enrolled in school and is required to study as a pre-requisite to playing with the club. Their corporate sponsorship program is aimed at encouraging young people to stay in school. With the help of corporate support, organizations such as schools receive these tickets as a mean of encouraging and keeping kids to stay interested in school, through extracurricular activities. The Juniors have given themselves a realizable target of $200,000 in charitable donations to be converted into 12,000 tickets for deserving kids.