A Toronto-area blind hockey player is finishing his stop in Ottawa as he rollerblades across Canada’s east coast raising money for his charity.
Mark DeMontis, 24, is the founder and president of Courage Canada, a national non-profit organization he created in 2008.
The charity tries to raise money to give Canadians who are blind and visually-impaired the opportunity to skate and play blind hockey.
DeMontis is spending his fifth day in Ottawa Tuesday where Prime Minister Stephen Harper will honour him for his work with the charity and his current tour.
The road to Ottawa has been a gruelling trip starting in Halifax two months ago. The Weston, Ont., native told CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning Tuesday it was been filled with obstacles he can’t see such as potholes, twigs, inclines and declines. He relies on three friends to both motivate and navigate.
“It is almost like deking a hockey player, you’ve got to go around them,” said DeMontis, who blades for about five or six hours per day covering 70 km.
Helping blind children conquer their fears
His focus is working to help young children who are visually impaired learn to skate and play hockey, which is something many of them believed they could never learn.
DeMontis was able to see as a child and for most of his teen years when he played competitive hockey. He only learned of his visual impairment when he was 17 years old. He then learned he suffered from a rare eye condition called Leber’s Optic Neuropathy, which destroyed the central sight in both eyes.
DeMontis has been left with less than 10 per cent of his eyesight and thought he might never play competitive hockey again. That quickly turned into a motivating force, he said.
“I decided to persevere and now I’m on a new journey in my life trying to make a difference for blind hockey,” he said.
Blading for more exposure
Blind hockey has been around for about 40 years. The one major difference between blind and ice hockey is the puck, which makes noise so players can use their hearing to locate it and navigate the ice surface.
There has been very little exposure, however, according to DeMontis, who said involvement from people such as Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk has helped him launch his charity.
“The only part to blind hockey that’s most important is trying to get more youth and adults from coast to coast,” he said.
The tour will finish October 15 in Weston.