Rhoda Tait: Most Valuable Baker

Rhoda Tait is 75 years old, her hands are gnarled from rheumatoid arthritis and she walks with the help of a cane.
Still, she could be considered the Most Valuable Player for the Weagamow Hawks hockey team … or at least its Most Valuable Baker.
After all, profits from Elder Tait’s bake sales bought the Hawks’ home and away jerseys, covered their entry fee to the recent Northern First Nations Hockey Tournament and even outfitted a couple of the team’s players with new skates.
Warmed by a blanket and a cup of coffee, Tait sits in the bleachers at the Sioux Lookout Memorial Arena, where she has just watched a Hawks victory during the March tournament.
They wore their stunning new jerseys, which provide a sky blue backdrop for their fierce Hawk logo.
Tait quietly started fundraising for the jerseys two years ago, baking and selling cinnamon rolls and bread, doughnuts and pies. Sometimes buyers at flea markets in Weagamow would be treated to her specialty – bannock and Klik sandwiches. “They’re the best,” she says.
The fundraising was her way of supporting Hawks players, all of whom she considers her grandsons, after three of their teammates died.
“It’s sad to see it happen like that,” she says of the young lives lost.
For the grieving players who remained, “I wanted to show them I loved them and cared for them,” she adds, her words translated from Oji-Cree to English by her daughter, Evangeline Chapman.
And they needed new uniforms, Tait noticed. She had seen the Hawks play in mismatched hockey socks and sweaters, some of them with tape for numbers.
After a busy Christmas season, bake sales were already good enough to buy the uniforms in time for last year’s Northern First Nations tournament. However, while the jerseys and matching socks were bought, the Hawks didn’t come up with their team entry fee in time to play in 2012.
“They were sad, disappointed,” Tait recalls.
So, she continued her bake sale efforts for another year, making enough to contribute to the team’s $2,200 tournament entry fee for 2013.
She figures her baked goods brought in about $5,000 over the past two years.
“I didn’t let anybody know what I was doing, just my children,” she says of her plans for the profits.
Tait’s daughter Doreen, whom she lives with in Weagamow, sometimes helped with the baking in their kitchen.
“And she’s teaching her granddaughters to bake too,” notes Evangeline. “What she can’t do (because of her arthritis), she tells them to do.”
Two of Tait’s hockey-playing grandsons, meanwhile, did the shopping when it came time to purchase the new uniforms. The Hawks colours would change from red and black to green or blue, decided Doreen’s boys, Giles and Trevor Chikane. They opted for blues, light and dark – close to the shades of the Pittsburgh Penguins alternate jersey, Trevor points out. And kokum’s preferred colour.
When tournament week arrived, Tait still had some money left, which she used for hotel rooms in Sioux Lookout for some players, and for new skates for Trevor and Giles. Their old ones had been battered from practise on the outdoor rink in Weagamow.
Tait missed being at some of the previous Northern First Nations tournaments because of illness, but as part of the opening ceremonies this year read from the Bible and prayed.
“Even though I can’t do anything with my hands and I can’t really walk around, I know where my strength comes from – from the Lord,” she says later.
On the ice, the Hawks reached the C-side championship game but about halfway through trailed the Kasabonika Islanders 4-0. By the middle of the third period, though, the Hawks had rallied to tie the game, with Giles contributing a goal and an assist to the comeback.
“We were talking about our grandma – playing for her,” Trevor, a 21-year-old winger, says of his team’s sudden turnaround.
Kasabonika scored again but so did Weagamow, with Trevor passing to a teammate for the goal.
In the end, the Hawks lost. But before the final was even played, they looked like winners to Tait.
Wearing their new jerseys, “They look much better,” she says after a preliminary game. “I’m so proud of them.”
A presentation made after their last game likely meant more to the Hawks than any trophy would have. They called Tait to the ice surface, gave her two team photos, and one by one expressed their thanks.
“Hi grandma, I love you,” Trevor says, bowing to hug her at centre ice.