3-3 -- Short Essay

In order to describe “my company”, I need to provide some background about myself.

I have been thinking about running my own business for a while now. Given the fact that I grew up in a hockey town in Europe, I have been involved in the game from a very young age, just as many Canadians are. After my parents got divorced, my mom was never able to afford to put me into hockey, even though that is all I ever wanted to do as a hobby. I was playing street hockey with my friends instead, not owning much more than a stick and a ball. 

Now the story starts to become unbelievable:

One day, I was pushing my bicycle up a hill, and carrying all my gear to go and meet my friends for an afternoon full of hockey. There was an older couple walking on the sidewalk, noticing my hockey jersey of our local team and asking me which player I like the most. After a little back and forth, they asked to meet my parents. To make a long story short, they were Multi-Millionaires and wanted to do some good. They offered to pay for my gear and hockey fees and enrolled me in the junior team in town.

Today, I still believe this has done me incredible good and this fantastic couple has made sure my life stays on the right track. By playing hockey, I was able to learn team skills and have put my spare time to good use rather than ending up in drugs or alcohol down the road.

I think in Canada there are a lot of families who have a hard time putting their kids into hockey. Let’s face it, it is a very expensive sport.  

Based on the utilitarian model I would love to a have a youth hockey league where money and players skills aren’t the most important thing. It would be ethical to have all the players on the teams play the same minutes every game, no matter what their skill or status is. This would provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people. As a non-profit organization this league would depend on corporations such as the Flames foundation for life and 50/50 ticket raffles (See Flames Foundation for Life) to finance hockey for kids who’s parents can’t afford to pay for it. When I played junior hockey, we had up to 4 practices a week and a game every weekend. My league would keep it simple. There would be 1 practice a week per team and one game. This is enough for players who want to play the game just for fun and who’s goal isn’t the NHL or any other Pro-league. Coaches and Referees would be volunteers who might not be the most skilled either, but who recognize how important this 1 or 2 hour work out for the kids is.

My hockey league would follow the following code of ethics:

- We are a team on and off the ice, no one team member is better or worse than any other team member. 

- Our main goal is to have fun and we share our ice time evenly among all team members. 

- New team members are welcome at any time and can join and leave a team as they wish. 

- We take pride in helping each other as best as we can, because as a team we are all responsible for each others well being.

This youth hockey league would be a socially responsible organization because it would address kids needs to use their time for a meaningful activity, which would keep them away from trouble, teach them team and social skills they will need for the rest of their lives and give them a feeling of belonging.

The divorce rate in Canada is slowly declining since the late 80’s (See stats of divorce rates here) however, still more than 12% of marriages are getting divorced at some point. I am assuming that most of the time, money will be tight for both divorced parties, and even tighter if there are kids. This is something I have experienced myself and I see a need for such an institution. With the opportunity I have been given earlier in my life, it seems like the right thing to do, to pass some of my fortune on to the next generation. As we learned in our text book, this is what ethics is about – the right thing to do.