Two Forteau youth will get the chance to attend hockey school on the Island thanks to a softball tournament held in L'Anse au Clair, July 11, honoring the memory of Tyler Letto.
Organized by his parents, Dean and Wanita Letto and family friend Chad Letto, the inaugural Tyler's Annual Softball Tournament 2009 raked in some $1,700 to send Markus and Myron Roberts, both 14 years of age, to a hockey camp in Corner Brook later this summer.
"We couldn't have picked two better kids," Chad said. "We're not picking kids that need money to go to hockey school, we're picking kids, in our mind, that deserve a chance and need to see what the hockey world has to offer them and let them have their own chance."
Sixteen-years old at the time, Tyler was killed in a car accident in the spring of 2008. He was a keen athlete throughout his young life, and was set to attend three hockey schools - one in P.E.I., St. John's and Corner Brook - last summer, before trying out for the AAA team.
The fun softball tournament was geared to exhibit Tyler's enthusiasm for sport.
"One of my biggest goals was to see the kids out there and wanting to play softball, because it doesn't seem like anything is organized anymore for kids sporting-wise, so get those kids interested, get them involved," Chad said.
"This was all in Tyler's name; Tyler was a really active kid - softball, volleyball, ball hockey, hockey, cross-country running - whatever he could get into, that's what he was into, and that's what they wanted to carry on."
Having been close to the family, Chad set up the Tyler Letto Memorial Fund after people in the area donated money to alleviate funeral costs. There was money left over. Chad suggested putting the money toward a fundraiser to send local kids to hockey school.
"We said we'd be happy with $500, and to see the crowd and the reaction and the day and how much we did bring in at the end of the day, it was overwhelming; it was overwhelming, the show of support that the local area can do with something like that," Chad said.
"When you're doing something in the name of someone else that has passed on, or that you're doing good for kids, the people around here seem to step up a little bit more. We didn't dream it was going to be that successful."
Dean's brother, Randy, also donated a new baseball glove for the MVP of the tournament, which went to L'Anse au Clair's Kristopher Thomas.
As successful as the tournament was, Chad said organizers have ideas on how to improve.
"We're hoping for bigger and better things next year. This year was just a testing, and we didn't know how everyone was going to accept it; but we should have known better, that everybody was going to try to do their best."
Chad added: "We'd like to thank everybody that showed up and everybody that donated, and hopefully next year it will be bigger and better and more people will come out to play, we'll get more kids off to hockey school."
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