Lethbridge’s Michael Grant receives Humboldt Broncos Legacy Award

Boulet, from Lethbridge, was one of the victims of the Broncos tragedy and a friend of Grant’s.

“When I put in my application, I wanted to do two things. I wanted to honour the legacy of the people that were on that bus, to honour Darcy’s [former Broncos head coach Darcy Haugan] core covenant [and] to honour my friend Logan’s values,” Grant said on Wednesday morning outside of Lethbridge College.

Haugan’s core covenant refers to a message the late coach painted onto the wall outside the Broncos dressing room.

It speaks about putting family first, showing respect to others, practicing and playing with passion and generally being a good person.

Grant will receive $5,000 as seed money for his proposed bursary program, which will allocate two awards of $500 per year to one student each at the University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge College.

The focus would be on adults with disabilities who want to pursue a post-secondary education. Grant said the award is “about leaving a legacy”.

“I was thinking [about] giving support to a group that doesn’t usually get support and many people don’t advocate for them…with giving a scholarship to people with disabilities every year in post-secondary education, [it] allows them to find employment after and then leave their own legacy on the community,” he said.

“That’s something I’ve always been passionate about – supporting and advocating for people with disabilities and I thought this would be a great way to be able to do that and because I don’t think there’s many opportunities for them out there like this. It was really important to me and it means so much that I was selected and I’m very proud to be able to honour Logan this way.”

Grant, a student himself, said a scholarship can have a major impact on a student’s post-secondary experience.

“It’s just a little extra burden off your shoulders so you can focus on your class work and focus on achieving your goals, so that’s something that I really wanted to do for them [students with disabilities],” he remarked.

“I don’t know if there’s a ton of scholarship opportunities out there for them. Hopefully this can be the first and then hopefully many more get created and we can build these programs up.”

Christina Haugan, the widow of the late Darcy Haugan, was on hand Wednesday morning to present the award.

“It’s a real honour to be able to be here [in Lethbridge] and have guys like this that want to continue the legacy and continue to see the core covenant shown in real life,” Haugan said.

Initially, Legacy Awards were focused on the Humboldt area, but this year they’ve branched out to individuals and groups making an impact in outside communities.

“It just sound like he has a pretty incredible plan going forward. From such a young guy to be able to see in such a big picture and be able to want to give back the way that he has is pretty amazing, so I think he’s a very worthy recipient,” Haugan added.

Criteria for the scholarship would factor in such pieces as financial need, prospective employment and a passion for learning.

The fund will be registered with the Canada Revenue Agency, consist of a board of directors, along with chartered professional accountant Bill Reddick.

by Justin Goulet

Lethbridge’s Michael Grant receives Humboldt Broncos Legacy Award

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