Every Child Matters Hockey Game set for Kamloops this weekend

Update: Sept. 8, 2025

Team Orange and Team White battled in an action-packed game that kept fans on the edge of their seats. The teams traded goals back and forth through three hard-fought periods, with ties happening again and again until the very end of the third. 

Team Orange pulled away with an exciting 11–6 win.

“This event has grown into something truly extraordinary,” said Jeremy Boston, director of the

Orange Jersey Project. “Seeing everyone come together — cheering, singing, and standing

united — shows the power of sport and culture to help us heal and move forward together.”

Original story:

Former professional hockey players, including some who spent time in the National Hockey League, will be among those participating in this year’s Every Child Matters Hockey Game.

The third annual contest, which is presented by the Orange Jersey Project and the Orange Shirt Society, will be held Sept. 6 in Kamloops, B.C.

This marks the second straight year the game will be held at the Sandman Centre, which is home to the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers.

The game was held in Williams Lake, B.C. during its inaugural year in 2023. About 500 spectators took in that contest.

“Last year we had about 1,200 people in the stands, not including all the staff,” said Jeremy Boston, the director of the Orange Jersey Project. “It was a pretty good turnout. But I'm hoping for more this year.”

Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous role models, including some current players and those in the entertainment industry, are invited to play in the game.

In each of the first two years, the Every Child Matters Hockey Game was held on Sept. 21. That was the closest date organizers could set up to Sept. 30, Orange Shirt Day, the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

Boston said organizers were forced to move up the date of this year’s game to early September to accommodate scheduling at the Kamloops rink and so it would not interfere with the start of the 2025-26 hockey season for those players taking part in the match.

Boston said some changes have occurred for this year’s game. A year ago, festivities included children’s activities outside the arena held throughout the day.

“This year we will be just having the game and autograph session,” Boston said. “We just wanted to focus more on our promotion of the players that are coming in and give them the time and recognition for them coming in.” 

Former NHL Indigenous players taking part in the game are John Chabot, Trevor Kidd and Scott Daniels.

“The concept of Every Child Matters is that it's for survivors of the Indian residential schools and the children yet to come home,” Boston said. “It's about awareness, education and sharing truth.”

Some of that truth will be shared before and during breaks in the match.

“We've recorded some of our survivors’ stories,” Boston said. “And we play them on the Jumbotron for all the fans in attendance to listen to our survivors and hear their stories.” However, there’s only a limited amount of time.

“I would love to share everybody's story,” Boston added. “But it's hard as we have hundreds of thousands of stories out there. But we can share what we can and educate as much as we can and share those stories from survivors.”

The game is also a fundraiser for the Orange Jersey Project.

“We are a non-profit organization and what we do is we provide minor hockey teams across Canada with free jerseys and our new player portal for them to learn and educate themselves about the Indian residential schools,” Boston said.

The portal though is not just for players.

“We include parents, teachers and anybody that wants to come onto our player portal to learn,” he said.

Boston is not sure if the game will continue to be held in Kamloops in future years.

“My plan was to see it move province to province and see if we can make those connections across Turtle Island and to give them the opportunity to host the Every Child Matters game,” he said. “We want to find those partnerships and those sponsors that we need to help facilitate making a game like this happen. We would love to go province to province.”

Boston is hoping to have the game move one province east of B.C. to Alberta in 2026.

Tickets for this year’s game cost $10 for adults (19 and over) and $5 for youth ages 14 to 18. Those under 13 are admitted free.

Tickets are available at www.orangejerseyproject.ca/ecm-game