Social enterprise group scores with hockey stick furniture project

A Nova Scotia organizationthat employs people with disabilities needs hockey sticks, lots and lots of hockey sticks, but not for the reason you might expect.

The Store Next Door is a retail store in Yarmouth that sells repurposed and handmade items, which it also manufactures. It is a social enterprise that hires people who have disabilities or face barriers to getting a job.

Its latest projectinvolves using old hockey sticks and transforming them intodifferent kinds of furniture, such as a headboard, trophy rack, end table and coat rack.

"We're not even been able to get any in the store. They keep selling," said Sandra Quesnel, the program director for YACRO Social Enterprise, the parent organization to The Store Next Door.

She said partnerships are in place to get sticks from a few arenas in Nova Scotia and they've also been contacting junior hockey teams, but more sticks are needed, ideally, thousands of them.

Quesnel said any stick will do,wood, composite and even ones for goalies.

With more sticks, more products could be manufactured, which would allow for the organizations to hire more people.

"We have many people in the community who are interested in coming in and working on our team if we can create enough work," said Quesnel.

How to donate sticks

Quesnel thinks the popularity of the product stems from Canada's cold climate and long winters, with which hockey is closely linked.

"Canada is a hockey country," she said.

People with sticks to donate can drop them off at The Store Next Door in Yarmouthor call its sister operation, All-Ways-Us, at 902-832-0433 to arrange a pickup in metro Halifax.