Medicine Hat’s Chisholm receives 2025 Chairman’s Award from Hockey Alberta

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Tara Chisholm with her award. Courtesy/Hockey Alberta

The Chairman’s award is selected by the Chairman of Hockey Alberta and given to one individual each year who displays exceptional service to hockey in the province.

The award has been given out since 1973, and Chisholm is the first winner from Medicine Hat.

“It was a surprise. They had emailed me, actually, they were trying to get me to come up to the award ceremony in the summertime, and I just assumed they were going to ask me to volunteer to do something,” Chisholm said.

“I do a lot of talks on inclusion or different things, so I tried to give them a couple of other names of people who were available because I was coaching Team Canada at the time,” she added.

“I was away for a camp during the time they wanted me to come, and they’re like, well, we can’t really sub anybody in for this, and then they’re like, we’ll just tell you because you got an award.”

A recognition ceremony was held in the summer, when inductions took place in Red Deer for the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame. Chisholm was unable to attend during preparation for a World Championship for Women’s Parahockey.

“They asked me when I would be up in Red Deer next. We were competing in a sledge hockey tournament up there last weekend, so it just worked out that they could present it to me there in front of all of the sledge hockey community, which was really nice to have all my peers there,” Chisholm said.

Chisholm got into working with sledge hockey players while doing her Kinesiology Degree at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

“I was working with the U of A Pandas hockey team, and during my undergrad I was looking for some volunteer hours. Not sure what I wanted to do with my kinesiology degree, but knowing that volunteering would probably help me figure it out a little bit more,” Chisholm said.

“That was the first time I heard about sledge hockey. I was searching the internet, and then after that I loved it,” she added.

“I was still coaching upper able-bodied hockey for quite a few years there with U18 triple A’s in Edmonton and the U of A Pandas and stuff, but I got more and more involved in the para-sport side of things, and then I knew that that was an area that I really enjoyed and wanted to put all my focus and attention towards.”

Para-sports have been a focus for Chisholm for the past 10 years.

“It’s been really rewarding, and it’s an amazing group of people that I get to spend time with,” Chisholm said.

It’s also where she met her husband, Derek Whitson, a former sledge hockey player with Team Canada.

“I was volunteering. I was in grad school at the time and had the flexibility to go down during a week-long event in Calgary and volunteer during the daytime for a Four Nations Cup that he was playing in. I had done some camps in the summer with some of his teammates previously that would come out and be guest coaches for me for some of the camps I’d used to run in Edmonton, and so yeah, they introduced us that weekend,” Chisholm said.

“It was the year leading up to the Sochi Paralympic. It’s one of their events helping to prepare for the game, so yes, I met Derek through volunteering and hockey.”

Chisholm acknowledged that Para sports have had a large impact on shaping her life.

“Oh, definitely, my closest friends, and I mean my family, are heavily involved too as volunteers now also, and yeah, essentially everything that I do for the most part revolves around Para-sport, whether that’s sledge hockey or other sports that we do here in town,” Chisholm said.

“It very much is just part of the fabric of my life, like there’s not really any separation from it, but like I said the community of folks that I get to work with, volunteer with, play alongside are some of my very favourite people in the world,” she added.

“I feel very fortunate to be a part of something like this.”

Medicine Hat Adaptive Sport and Recreation runs eight different sports in the city throughout the year.

“We run four in the fall, winter, and then four in the spring, summer, so we’ve had more at certain times and have had less definitely as we grew,” Chisholm said.

“But we’ve kind of settled on eight of them that seem to be gaining popularity and kind of where people like,” she added.

“We’re actually planning to try for the spring wheelchair rugby, because there’s an interest in the province to push that sport forward and grow more clubs in the province, so we’re always keen to bring new opportunities and see if there are people in Medicine Hat that would like to participate and play.”

Chisholm said that having adaptive sporting options in the community is huge, from what families and participants have said.

“Anybody who goes out and plays recreational sport can be a big part of your life. It’s where you meet people and create friendships,” Chisholm said.

“There’s lots of different goals people have for playing sports, whether it is that socialization or whether it is that physical fitness or the mental health of being able to get out of your house, especially in the long winter months,” she added.

“I think it’s really no different for folks that are experiencing disability to have the opportunity to go out and play and do something that they’re passionate about.”

Adaptive sports are also designed so that family, friends and other community members can also play.

“Adaptive sport, it doesn’t matter if you have a disability or not. We’ll figure out a way that you can play, and play with the people that you love, or play with the people that you want to meet and make friendships with,” Chisholm said.

“It’s a really cool community where everyone’s involved.”

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat’s Chisholm receives 2025 Chairman’s Award from Hockey Alberta

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