DEBBIE MCQUILKIN &
THE STORM HOCKEY
Chris Kreider New York Rangers This year, Kreider has been volunteering - for the pleasure of being with these kids. NY Ranger Chris Drury has also done some Storm clinics in the past.
of the American Special Hockey Association
By Marc Fleisher Debbie McQuilkin grew up in Lakewood, Washington, the daughter of a commercial fisherman. “Sometimes there was lots to eat, sometimes not so much.” A roommate in Spokane introduced her to her husband, Kevin McQuilkin, and the young couple moved East in ’87, married in ’88, and moved to New Canaan in 1990. Their first house in New Canaan was on Millport Road, then a decade in a bigger house on Ponus Ridge, before they ‘bought the farm’ in 2011 - They’re the folks who own the Abby Normal Farm on Oenoke Ridge - the Federalist red brick mansion with the great red barns and the alpacas. Their four kids, Colin (’89), Austin (’92), Kieran (’93), and Molly (’97), all started in the New Canaan public schools and then went to King Low Heywood. Colin went on to Kevin’s alma mater Gonzaga, Austin to Loyola Maryland, Kieran to Washington & Lee, and Molly is currently a senior at Gonzaga. All three McQuilkin boys played hockey at the Winter Club, and Colin and Kieran played for King…while Debbie played the dutiful ‘hockey mom’. She was managing a team at the Winter Club in New Canaan in 2006, when she filled a garage with used hockey equipment from a charity drive. A round of calls led her to the American Special Hockey Association’s then President, Mike Hickey, who suggested Debbie use the equipment to start a team within ASHA. Debbie told Hickey “But I don’t have a child with a disability”; Hickey responded saying “Right, if you did you wouldn’t have time to run one of these teams”, and; Debbie, on that first call, and immediately impacted by Hickey’s point, determined “OK, I’ll do it!” “I knew I needed someone to actually run the hockey, so my first call was to John Corcoran, who played pro hockey in Sweden and who I knew as a hockey dad around town. That first Summer in 2006: we got ice for a couple of weeks in Darien; we had 6 kids, who we put in the equipment from the Winter Club charity drive and some other borrowed stuff; we had a couple of coaches, and; my boys helped out. It was magical for sure! The next step was to find ice for a regular season, and the rinks in Darien and Stamford couldn’t find time that would work for our kids. John and Mike Ferguson, who run Wonderland of Ice in Bridgeport, right away allocated our coveted Sunday afternoon ice time, and we ran a program with 10 kids in 2007. That grew to 15 in 2008, and 30 in 2009, and now we’re stabilized at around 60 kids playing every year.”
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BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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BEDFORD & NEW CANAAN
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