Zehr Insurance's Helmets For Life campaign helps protect young athletes

Zehr Insurance marketing manager Dave Stewart is encouraging locals to visit one of the company’s local offices to learn more about brain injuries and pick up a voucher for a free skating helmet for kids aged three to seven. Galen Simmons photo

By Galen Simmons

For the past 11 years, Zehr Insurance has been helping young children across Perth, Huron and Waterloo regions hit the ice with the proper protection while promoting the lifelong importance of preventing brain injuries.

The insurance brokerage's annual Helmets For Life campaign, which starts in September each year, provides free hockey and skating helmets to children ages three to seven while raising awareness about concussion prevention and the work of Brain Injury Canada. Marketing manager Dave Stewart said the program was created in 2015 after brain injuries affected members of the Zehr Insurance family.

"We had a couple staff members that suffered concussions and another one had a family member with an acquired brain injury," Stewart said. "We wanted to create something that gave back in the community."

The company partnered with Brain Injury Canada, a national charity focused on education, awareness and advocacy for people living with acquired brain injuries, and has continued to support the organization through donations and other fundraising efforts.

Helmets For Life itself focuses on prevention.

Parents can pick up a voucher at any Zehr Insurance office, including those in New Hamburg, Tavistock and Milverton, before exchanging it for a professionally fitted hockey or skating helmet at Corley Sports Excellence in Listowel, Dunny's Source for Sports in Stratford or Sportco Source for Sports in Kitchener. Zehr Insurance pays each retailer directly for the helmets redeemed through the program.

When families collect their voucher, parents also receive information about concussions and Brain Injury Canada, while children receive a Helmets For Life sticker for their new helmet.

"We give the parents a brochure as well, a concussion card, and the kids get a little Helmets For Life sticker they can stick on their helmet," Stewart said.

The campaign is announced each year through Zehr Insurance's social-media channels and is intended specifically for children between the ages of three and seven.

Stewart said the company typically gives away between 200 and 250 helmets each year, meaning more than 2,000 children have received free helmets since the program began.

"It's specific for kids," he said. "Hockey and skating are expensive. Life's expensive, so we want to target those families ... because those are our young families in our community and we want to help them."

Beyond making helmets more affordable, Stewart said the program is about teaching children from the very beginning that wearing a helmet should simply be part of skating.

The campaign's mission, he added, is threefold: support Brain Injury Canada, promote concussion prevention and brain-injury awareness, and give back to the communities Zehr Insurance serves.

Families can learn when this year's campaign begins by following Zehr Insurance on social media or by visiting their local Zehr Insurance office.