Small-town hospitality saves stranded Regina ringette team

Harsh winter weather forced Regina Riot U16 ringette team to overnight in St. Claude, where locals offered shelter and additional help. Damian Smith has more.

While the Co-Operators Centre is home for the U16 Regina Riot ringette team, on Friday evening, they had to find a new home.

On the way to a tournament in Winnipeg, the team became stranded in St. Claude, Manitoba, due to poor road visibility.

“We’ve heard about people getting stuck in storms, but none of us have ever experienced anything like that,” said coach Rylee McMillan. “We were more just worried about the safety of the players, those on our bus, and our families.”

The town of just over 600 people opened their community centre for a 41-person sleepover.

“They were very welcoming,” said McMillan. “Within ten minutes, people from the community were bringing things like blankets, coats, air mattresses, pillows.”

All seven board members of the St. Claude Community Centre showed up to assist the team.

“My thought was, how are we going to feed all these people? There’s 41 of them, and we weren’t exactly prepared,” said Kayla Pryor, booking coordinator and treasurer at the centre.

Luckily, the team had a prepacked supper ready.

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Pryor recalls the moment the players came off the bus.

“The looks on their faces were total shock and surprise. They were so grateful for everything. At one point, we walked in, and they were cheering and clapping for us.”

This isn’t the first time St. Claude has helped a large group. Around Thanksgiving in 2019, the town was left without power for a week, and hundreds relied on a single generator.

“It almost makes me emotional thinking about it,” said Pryor. “Doing stuff like this really fuels my soul. Being able to help people in a time of need—it could have been a terrible night if they had to sleep on the bus."

Before leaving, the players left thank-you notes, marking St. Claude as a second home.