AMHERST, N.S. – When Amherst Ramblers goaltender Joel Goguen steps onto the ice, Brody Kouwenberg is right there with him.
“It’s awesome to be on the ice with the helmet,” Goguen said. “He watches every game and he’s our number one fan, so when I’m on the ice it feels like he’s out there with us.”
The 19-year-old goaltender first met the Brody when he the honourary 7th player at a game during last year’s hockey season.
“Brody’s a warrior. He’s a brave kid. He’s been through a lot, and I wanted to reach out to him and do something special for him,” Goguen said.
The Kouwenberg’s live in Oxford, and Goguen reached out by calling Brody’s mom Jennifer.
“The first message I had from him was ‘you might not know who I am but this is my name and this is what I’d like to do if you’re OK with it,’” Jennifer said. “I was speechless and completely honoured. It’s such a selfless thing for him to do, and for him to reach out to me on his own was pretty special.”
Brody was born with a congenital heart defect that required open-heart surgery moments after he was born. He was given a one per cent chance of survival.
He had pace-maker implanted a few years ago. Without the pace-maker his heart would stop beating.
Today, the eight-year-old is very active in sports, especially in hockey where he’s a forward, and takes every opportunity to give hope to young people with congenital heart defects.
“He really wants to bring awareness about heart disease and heart defects and he wants people to realize that it’s ok to be different and that you can still live a normal life and help others.”
Brody raises money for kids with congenital heart defects and will lead a 5K and 3K Heart-Walk fundraiser Oct. 19 at Dickey Park in Amherst.
“His goal is to help others and to donate money to the Braveheart Support Society that helps sick kids at the IWK,” Jennifer said.
Brody often wears a t-shirt with a customized ‘Bro-Bot’ logo he designed.
That logo was transferred onto Goguen’s goalie helmet.
“My dad paints my helmet, so we talked to Brody about what he would like on the helmet and he gave me a lot to work with,” Goguen said. “There’s the robot and two hashtags on the back. One is the hashtag Team Bro-Bot and the other one is hashtag PaceMaker Powered.”
The hashtags are in Brody’s own handwriting.
“Joel asked me if I had anything in Brody’s handwriting because he wanted it to look like Brody wrote it on his helmet,” Jennifer said. “So I sent him pictures of Brody’s handwriting and Joel’s father painted the helmet to make it look like Brody did the handwriting.”
Brody loves the final design.
“I like the coolness of it. It looks really cool.”
Brody loves to play hockey, so much so that he sleeps with his hockey stick.
He also loves watching Ramblers games.
“Every home game he goes up behind the glass and bangs on it to get Joel’s attention during warmup,” Jennifer said.
She says Joel is a great role model.
“Brody wants to make kids smile like Joel makes him smile.”
And she can’t say enough about how supportive the entire Ramblers organization has been.
“Kids really look up to the Ramblers players, and for the Ramblers to step up and do something so impactful is amazing.”
Goguen says Brody is his lucky charm, adding that he’s a big fan of Brody’s and that it’s an honour to wear the Bro-Bot logo on his helmet.
“Having his drawing on my helmet definitely helps me play better,” Goguen said.
Heart Walk Information
12 to 4 p.m. – Heart walk activities include a 5K Walk, a 3K walk, food for purchase, face painting, balloon art, the Balance King, and more.
1 p.m. – Begin of the 5K walk
1:30 p.m. Begin of the 3K walk
The Heart Walk raises money for the Braveheart Support Society, which is part of the IWK Foundation.
Their website says, “The Braveheart Support Society supports families in Atlantic Canada living with the challenges of congenital heart disease, and endeavours to raise public awareness about the disease. Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect, occurring in one per cent of all births. This year, approximately 90 babies will be born with congenital heart disease in Nova Scotia.”
