Type One Timer Youth Hockey Camp helps kids with Type 1 Diabetes

For the past three years, Ian Paddock, 11, has taken the ice at the Type One Timer Youth Hockey Camp at Hertz Arena. He flies all the way from Minnesota to learn lessons on the ice.

“This can bring the best out of me when I’m like playing the sport I feel like this brings the best out of me,” Ian said.

And off the ice as this is where he gets to hang out with his friends. They are bonded not just over their love of hockey.

“I have friends who are playing hockey and also have diabetes and I’m like these are my people. Like yeah my community,” Ian said.

“It’s great for Ian to see older kids that are thriving and doing big things with this disease,” Ian’s mom, Melissa Paddock, said. “And it inspires him to keep going. And reach his goals the things he wants.”

That’s what Geoff and Meagan Hoffmann hoped for when they started this camp. They understand what these kids and their families go through, as their oldest son, Henry, has Type 1 Diabetes.

“This is a place where we all understand each other and there’s an empathy and you know we just want to create a fun place for the kids to feel comradery and friendships,” Megan said.

“That feeling we get when we change somebody’s life coming here and feeling that sense of normalcy,” Henry said. “It’s the whole reason we do it.”

For five days, this group of 75 young hockey players get to hit the ice with members of the Florida Everblades, who take them through drills.

They’re also joined by San Jose Sharks center Luke Kunin, who also has Type 1 Diabetes.

His message to the kids was, “enjoy the game. enjoy what the game has to offer. You know in the diabetes front I think just doing the best you can. There’s good days and bad days and don’t get too high too low. But don’t let it stop you from whatever it is you want to do.”