The community of Whitecourt is taking to the ice today to remember two boys killed by their father one year ago.
The Whitecourt Wolverines will play a memorial hockey game in honour of the team’s owners, Tracy and Brent Stark. They lost their sons Ryder and Radek MacDougall in a double murder-suicide. The bodies of the 13-year-old and 11-year-old, respectively, were found in a Spruce Grove home along with the body of their father, Cory MacDougall, on Dec. 19th last year.
In the year since Ryder and Radek died, the community of Whitecourt has united in showing support for the boys’ mother and stepfather.
“Anything we can do to ease any sort of heartbreak or heartache during this time of year, that’s definitely what we’re trying to do,” said Andrew Peard, who helped organize the memorial match.
Community members are encouraged to write messages of hope to the Starks on the ice at the Whitecourt Twin Arenas on Saturday, home of the AJHL hockey team. The messages will remain on the ice for the special memorial game against the Spruce Grove Saints on Saturday evening.
Ryder (left) and Radek (right) MacDougall were remembered in a vigil held shortly after their deaths in 2016 by the Spruce Grove community at Grant Fuhr Arena. (Zoe Todd/CBC)
The hockey team will also unveil new jerseys that honour Ryder and Radek.
“There’s nothing we can do to make everything better but we think that just doing this will at least give them some sort of support and something they can fall back on,” Peard said.
The public can start writing messages on the ice at 2 p.m. in Whitecourt.
The memorial game’s opening ceremonies start at 7:30 p.m.