At A Crossroads
May 20, 2022
Exploring “Edutainment”
May 20, 2022
The Big Picture
A Good Samaritan changed Reggie Millette's life forever. Now he's looking to pay it forward.
By Jeffrey Martin
N o one knows who changed AIC freshman hockey player Reggie Millette’s life as a child. It all began when the twenty- two-year-old forward started skating on the ice more than a decade ago. His grandmother would bring him to the rink in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his love for the game began. Hockey is an expensive sport, and eventually, the costs began to add up. In a profile with Bauer, a major hockey equipment manufacturer, Reggie said his grandmother couldn’t afford the fees to put him on the ice. That all changed when someone—Reggie still doesn’t know who—anonymously paid his ice bill. This Good Samaritan altered Reggie’s life forever, but not everyone is fortunate enough to receive such a kind gift from a mystery benefactor. Fast forward to 2022 and Reggie wants to change lives, one hockey stick at a time.
Reggie is in the beginning stages of starting a charitable organization: “The big picture for me is taking hockey outside of the United States and taking it to areas like Haiti or Ethiopia.” The philanthropic student-athlete is inspired by similar organizations that focus on taking sports to places that don’t have it yet. The lack of diversity in hockey compared to other sports like baseball or football is glaring. “An NFL team has guys from all over the world, but a hockey team might have [players] only from Canada, the US, Russia, and Sweden. There are minority groups that don’t even have a chance to play,” Reggie explains. Now, the hockey prodigy wants to take down the same financial barriers that nearly prevented him from playing the sport.
The cost of proper hockey gear is incredibly expensive. “The biggest barrier I think everyone can see in hockey is the price . . . I remember when I was younger, to get a good hockey stick, it was about $300. For a new pair of skates, it’s about $1,000,” Reggie explains. In hindsight, it makes the Good Samaritan’s charitable act that much more powerful. The anonymous donor also gifted Reggie some gear to get started, including a lefty and righty stick. Even with free equipment, young players bear the cost of literal growing pains: “When you’re a kid and you’re still growing, you might only be in your skates for a year and then you’re going to need new skates . . . for a lot of people, that’s the toughest part about hockey.” Players on travel teams need to shell out even more to cover costs like transportation, lodging, and food. Reggie is already finding ways to cover some of these expenses and make the game of hockey more affordable.
The big picture for me is taking hockey outside of the United States and taking it to areas like Haiti or Ethiopia.
Reggie Millette signs autographs with fellow AIC hockey teammate Blake Bennett for students at Squadron Line Elementary School in Simsbury, CT. Photo credit: Seth Dussault '11, MEd '15
In early February 2022, Reggie teamed with Bauer to give dozens of middle schoolers in New Haven, Connecticut, hockey equipment. The students were nervous when they entered the gym, but Reggie said something as small as giving each of them a fist bump allowed them to feel more comfortable. It didn’t take long for the kids to start playing and using the gear. Reggie felt a joy that was difficult to express when he was putting hockey sticks into kids’ hands. “It’s definitely something I hold dearly in my heart because I was definitely one of those kids before, not knowing what I’m going to do after school, or where’s my next meal coming from. Handing over a hockey stick to a kid who’s never held one before and just knowing what it’s done for me is inspiring for me as well. Having a kid look up to you in that dramatic of a fashion makes you feel like a superhero.”
Flint, Michigan, the same city that was thrust into the spotlight in 2014 when its water was contaminated with lead. He wants to give back to a rink in that area. “I’m always there anyway. I’m pretty much just bringing the brand, which is me, to the area where I’m at,” Reggie says. Where the student-athlete goes, his principles follow. Hockey is a commitment for Reggie and he wants kids to develop life skills from making that commitment: “The biggest thing I wanted was for kids to not quit. If they signed up to do the hockey thing, there’s no possible way that they can quit, you have to go through it the whole time.” It may sound like an intense approach, but as Reggie reminds himself, “I know for me when I was younger, I’d do something for a day and never go back to it.” Reggie learned life lessons from hockey by returning the next day—a lesson he wants to pass onto the next generation.
I brought everything I knew from life to hockey, and then everything I learned from hockey I brought into my life.
Photo credit: Leon Nguyen '16
Reggie's philanthropic ventures may be in the early stages, but he already has plans to take his charitable cause nationwide. During the summer, Reggie trains about twenty minutes away from Flint, Michigan, the same city that was thrust into the spotlight in 2014 when its water was contaminated with lead. He wants to give back to a rink in that area. “I’m always there anyway. I’m pretty much just bringing the brand, which is me, to the area where I’m at,” Reggie says. Where the student-athlete goes, his principles follow. Hockey is a commitment for Reggie and he wants kids to develop life skills from making that commitment: “The biggest thing I wanted was for kids to not quit. If they signed up to do the hockey thing, there’s no possible way that they can quit, you have to go through it the whole time.” It may sound like an intense approach, but as Reggie reminds himself, “I know for me when I was younger, I’d do something for a day and never go back to it.” Reggie learned life lessons from hockey by returning the next day—a lesson he wants to pass onto the next generation.
Leadership was born out of necessity for Reggie. The recruited college hockey player was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. He and his sister would periodically live with their grandmother in Indiana while his mother dealt with personal issues. Reggie had a hard time putting it into words: “When I was a kid, I was definitely on my own. I had to make decisions by myself. I’m not really waiting on my mom to tell me to do something . . . I got to take it upon myself to do it because there’s no one else here right now.” Hockey made a difference for him by offering an outlet where he could apply life lessons. “I brought everything I knew from life to hockey, and then everything I learned from hockey I brought [into my] life,” as Reggie begins to list what the game has taught him: discipline, learning not everything will be easy, the importance of being on time, just to name a few.
Hockey has done more than just teach Reggie life lessons—it also showed him what he values, like family and camaraderie. “When I was a kid, I didn’t have a stable home or family. With hockey, I get to go to the rink and see the same twenty- three guys every day and learn their personalities,” Reggie explains. He also values that everyone on the team has the same goal in mind. He attributes the pursuit of the common goal as one of the reasons why the Yellow Jackets have had so much success on the ice. For the third season in a row, AIC clinched the Atlantic Hockey Association Championship and advanced to the NCAA DI Tournament (the Yellow Jackets were knocked out in the Allentown Regional by University of Michigan). But the team’s success isn’t the most important thing about the sport for Reggie. “It gave me something that I never had before, which is the family aspect,” he says, as he fulfills his vision of providing that same kind of support to complete strangers, one hockey stick at a time.
Photo credit: Kelly Shea '20
