Lindsay Campbell
When Emo native Bob Cooke passed away last September, it had an enormous impact on the lives of others in the community.
This was especially true for eight-year-old Teagan Wrolstad of Fort Frances.
Wrolstad, a close family friend who knew him as “Uncle Bob,” decided at the beginning of this past hockey season to donate every dollar he raised for goals and assists to the Emo skateboard park being built in Cooke’s memory.
Teagan’s dad, Todd, said he initially wasn’t into the idea of giving his eight-year-old money every time he scored a goal, but couldn’t turn his son down when he thought up the idea to donate to such a special cause.
“I said to him, ‘I want you to score because you want to score, not because you’re getting paid to,’” Todd Wrolstad explained.
“I came through the door after one weekend being out of town and when he asked me [about getting money for goals] and said, ‘But I want to donate it to the skate park’ . . . I couldn’t say no.
“I was pretty proud.”
The youngster, whose season ran from the end of October until March, raised $1,040 in no more than 40 regular-season games, four tournaments, three weeks of 3-on-3 games, plus a 3-on-3 tournament.
This came from the help of his parents, grandparents, and other family members, who contributed every time he either scored a goal or got an assist.
He earned an average of $6 for every goal and another $6 for each assist.
“I wanted to honour Uncle Bob’s idea for the skate park,” Teagan Wrolstad said.
“Uncle Bob really wanted to help the kids and I thought that was really important.”
“We didn’t tell a lot of people that we were doing this,” noted his dad.
“But [Teagan] would try so hard and sometimes the other parents would get mad if he was scoring five or six goals a game . . . then we would explain to them what he was doing this for.”
Cooke’s father, Randy, said young Teagan’s decision to donate to his son’s cause was an extraordinary gesture.
“I’m amazed . . . I was really amazed that he was doing that because I know that Bob was very special to him and he was very special to Bob,” Cooke noted.
“It was certainly way above and beyond for the young fella to do that,” he added.
“It’s amazing what he’s done.”
During Emo council’s monthly meeting last Thursday night, the budding hockey star presented the skateboard park committee with the cheque of his hard-earned work.
Holly Kropelin, who heads the committee, said his actions left her and many others at a loss for words that evening.
“It was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen,” she remarked.
“He’s such a young little boy so for him to be completely selfless about it . . . and without hesitation decide that he wants to donate it towards this skate park, it made the majority of the room speechless when he came into the presentation for the rec council.
“To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like that,” Kropelin added.
“It was truly a testament to the effect that Bob had on Teagan and his family, and everyone that Bob knew in the community.
“It was such a great thing.”
Kropelin she said she thought this was a project that needed to be seen through even before the committee was formed.
“I think it was several years ago when Bob brought this idea to the rec council and thought there was a need in the community for the youth to have this [skate] park,” she noted.
“Unfortunately he passed away.
“After that happened, his mom and dad had actually asked people to donate to the skate park because it was something he felt so strongly about and he wanted to see it go in the community for the kids,” Kropelin added.
Kropelin, who works at the Northwestern Health Unit in chronic disease prevention, said her department always is promoting physical activity.
As such, it was an easy fit to work closely on something like this.
“I went to Bob’s father, Randy, and said, ‘If there’s anything I can do, I’d be happy to help,’” she recalled.
“Then I went to the rec council and said the same thing, and told them it would go well with my work at the health unit, and it went from there.”
Kropelin said the skate park still is in the early stages of planning. But with an estimated cost of $120,000, the money the committee received from Wrolstad will go a long way.
The committee plans on doing a lot of fundraising and already has applied for a few grants.
“It’s going to be a rather expensive project so any money that we can get will be helpful,” Kropelin noted.
When asked if he would donate to the skate park next year, Wrolstad said that all depends on how long it takes to finish the project.
“If the skate park is done this year, then I won’t need to,” he reasoned.
“I want to donate to that again but if they make something else for Uncle Bob, then I’ll give to that.”
Wrolstad’s mother, Stephanie, said this has been a healing process for the whole family.
“Bob was part of our family,” she remarked. “He was at every game and every tournament if he wasn’t working.
“It was very hard but we don’t want it to be about that,” she stressed.
“We want it to be about giving back and that was something that Bob believed in, too.”
