More than 300 hundred people stood in silence Friday to mark the very moment, 66 years ago, when seven peewee hockey players and their coach were killed after the roof the Listowel arena came crashing down following weeks of intense snowfall.
“You can’t have a boy go to hockey practice and not come home. I was lucky. I walked out of it that day. But it’s hurts, it still hurts me to the core,” said Pete Leppard.
Leppard was one of the 13 members of the peewee hockey team who were injured, but survived the arena collapse on Feb. 28, 1959. Leppard said he always felt the town tried to move on too quickly following the Saturday morning tragedy.
“Sunday, we went to visitation at Knox United Church. Monday, we went to the funeral at the United Church. Tuesday, we went back to school. That has always felt wrong to me,” said Leppard.
But thanks in large part to the efforts of Leppard and his fellow collapse survivors, Listowel now accepts and actively marks the tragedy.
Most recently with the construction of the Memorial Arena Park on the very site of the old arena that collapsed. The new park, which features eight pairs of bronzed skates in front of a memorial wall with the names of those that died in the tragedy was the backdrop for the anniversary service.
“I thought it was going to be a parking lot or a bunch of houses. You know, that wasn’t going to be right. This is perfect,” said arena collapse survivor Ross Werth, who read some of the poetry he created in honour of his fallen peewee hockey players at Friday’s ceremony.
The park, which will feature an outdoor skating rink next winter, just opened in November. Nearly $1 million was raised by the community to make it a reality.
“When I first came into that the mayorship, my first big issue was actually what to do with the old arena. Here we are. We’ve taken a few years, but this community has rallied and shown us and given generously to make something happen here, that is really quite remarkable,” said North Perth Mayor Todd Kasenberg.
“The park speaks volumes because people can come and enjoy it, and instead of tears of sorrow we’ll have laughter and enjoyment in the facilities,” said Memorial Arena Park Fundraising Chair Jerry Rozendal.
While the black and white footage from the arena collapse that day in 1959 suggests that the tragedy was a long time ago, it isn’t. Not for the people that were there that day who say it feels like yesterday.
“I thought it would be easy this time. Yeah. But, it’s still there,” said an emotional Werth.
“The young boys are right in the front of my heart at all times. Everyday I think about them, and I have been that way for years, and years, and years. I’m sure it will be that way until I’m not here anymore,” said Leppard.
