RnR Hot Stove: The R&R Empowering Society of Alberta

Good Morning Everyone!  Today is a good day to have a good day!  Beautiful sunshine out here in the wilds of Northern Alberta  and my mind is full of reflection on the week past and anticipation for my week ahead. The thoughts and prayers of the R & R Team are also on all those with friends and relations on Canada’s East Coast  this past week.  Many friends and relations have been hit hard by the storms off NFLD and Nova Scotia and may those struggling find the strong spirit that is part of our East Coasters.  May you all work together to “Rise Again”.      Both Tracy and I have many special friends who reside in or come from that area. This past summer Tracy even had the distinct pleasure of being screeched in and ‘kissing the cod.! Send We are sending  hope and strength to all those affected by the storms that have ravished the east coast of our beautiful Canada, our true north ‘strong and free’  We are ONE and we send you buckets of love!

Our week was also filled with much love at Hart’s Table and Bar in Edmonton on Saturday night where over a hundred people came together to celebrate the inauguration of expanding the focus of the former R & R Memorial Foundation.  The R & R Memorial Foundation was initially focused on providing funds only to families in Whitecourt, Alberta needing a hand up in order to have a child play organized hockey.  Stay tuned for testimonials in future blogs of some of our past recipients who have benefited from such assistance from the R & R Memorial Foundation.  The new entity is now entitled THE R & R Empowering Society of Alberta. It is now the purpose of the organization to create greater awareness and extend its reach provincially to all Alberta youngsters not just in hockey but in many other extracurricular pursuits.  As well a dynamic of the new society now includes assistance both financially and educationally for those families where leaving an abusive environment is an issue and where help is needed for breaking free of  such dangerous situations in an ultimate quest to end the culture of violence all too prevalent in our society. I had the privilege of introducing the force behind the initial establishment of and the expanded focus of the new organization.  Here are some excerpts from my introduction of that “force” at Hart’s Table and Bar in Edmonton on Saturday night.

“Good Evening Everyone.  To celebrate the inauguration of the R & R Empowering Society of Alberta.  I  am delighted to begin our incredible evening by introducing to you the force behind the establishment of a new entity formerly known as the R & R Memorial Foundation. In order to expand its reach and focus the new organization has now been christened as THE R & R EMPOWERING SOCIETY OF ALBERTA. 

My name is Sandra Young Kolbuc and I have the distinct honor of introducing a woman who epitomizes the expression “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!”  One cold winter day in December of 2016, six days before Christmas, the life trajectory of this woman tragically and unimaginably changed in an instant when she and her husband Brent discover that her hockey playing boys, Radek 11 and Ryder 13, had both been brutally murdered in a double murder/suicide at the hand of their biological father in Spruce Grove, Alberta.   Such was a horrendous nightmare from which she could not awaken.  

In the depth of her sorrow this woman made a solid pledge to her sons that their brief lives on this earth would make a difference in the lives of other mothers and children.  Her life work became a job she had never applied for that of nurturing the legacy of two beautiful sons who now play on Heaven’s All Star Team.

In our work together as therapist and client and subsequently in our working together to write a heartfelt book entitled Gross Misconduct Hitting From Behind   which we birthed and coddled over a pandemic was finally be released on March 23/2022. As all hockey fans know a gross misconduct is the worst penalty a player can receive in the game of hockey. The woman of whom I speak was truly hit from behind by the untimely death of her two children by the actions of their biological father whom she had trusted to do right by them.  

What I truly wanted in the book title was one more line and that line which eventually found its place on the back cover of the book  was A MOTHER’S LOVE STORY because the essence of our book is ultimately that. A MOTHER’S LOVE STORY and the launching of the new entity precisely defines such love for her two sons to perpetuate their memory and make a difference for other children.
    
This woman  of whom I speak truly represents both  grace and grit , dedication and determination as evidenced in her tenacious quest to ensure that the short lives of her boys Ryder Patryk &  Radek Stryker  make a difference in a world. Our world at this time is desperately short of real heroes.  But tonight WE HAVE ONE such hero amongst us in this room.

I continue to witness the intensity of her purpose and her desire to change the lives of both women and children in our corner of the universe on behalf of her sons.  Tonight, this woman will share her commitment to bringing life to The R & R Empowering Society of Alberta.  Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome to the microphone - a first line centre in this game of life – one courageous woman named TRACY STARK.” 

Love Sandra

Please visit The R&R Empowering Society of Alberta's new website @ www.rnrempoweringsocietyofalberta.ca