Teaming up to honour Taylor

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This article was published 01/03/2018 (3023 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In hockey, Taylor Dawn Renwick made friends out of her rivals.

She got a kick out of the extended season, playing on the same team as girls she otherwise competed against.

“She said it was really great to meet some of them and find out what they’re like off the ice,” said her sister, Danielle Lewis.

In a memorial hockey tournament in Taylor’s honour, her family and friends have their hockey teams picked for them.

“That way you get to play with a whole bunch of different people that maybe you don’t really know,” Lewis said.

She knows her younger sister would have loved it.

The second Taylor Renwick Memorial Tournament was held at Melita and Area Arena on Feb. 17-18.

Taylor’s parents, her two sisters and many of her friends were there. They celebrated a young life stolen from them too soon. Posters hung around the rink served as reminders to Taylor’s warm heart.

It felt like Taylor was there with them, Lewis said.

“There’s just a presence because so many of the people there knew her and loved her.

“She would be pretty psyched about having a tournament in her name.”

Sixty-five women strapped on the skates this year for the memorial tournament. With five teams, they added one more squad than the inaugural weekend in 2017.

The women more than doubled last year’s fundraising total, raising nearly $3,000. Funds will go to the Taylor Renwick Sponsor a Minor Hockey Player Fund, which covered registration fees and equipment costs for local kids. They helped four children this season, learning to love the game like Taylor did.

As well, the tournament “serves as a way to spread the message, ‘Don’t drink and drive,’” Lewis said. “Lots of the women are moms, have kids. They can pass that message along to their kids, too.”

On Oct. 9, 2015, Taylor Renwick was driving home to Napinka to spend Thanksgiving with her family when she was struck by a driver, who has since been charged with impaired driving causing death. She was 20.

Taylor was “one of the kindest souls you would ever meet,” Lewis said. She was full of life and laughter.

Her warmth was palpable to everyone. Lewis tells of a student in Taylor’s athletic therapy program at the University of Manitoba experiencing it first-hand.

“They sat beside her just because she seemed so nice, and then they spoke with her and discovered that she was such a nice person,” said Lewis, recalling the story. “It kind of radiated from her; she just seemed like someone you could talk to.”

Taylor’s younger sister, Hilary Renwick, misses their conversations.

“I have a lot of memories of Taylor and I just laughing, which is probably my favourite memories. It’s just us hanging out, not doing anything specific.”

Helping Taylor move into her own apartment in Winnipeg is one moment that comes to mind. They were exhausted from moving. “When us girls get tired, we get super giggly,” Hilary said. “I remember us just being dorks. We had a little ball that we kept throwing at each other; we were just hysterically laughing.”

She said Taylor loved hockey, animals, all sorts of movies and, most of all, her family. As often as possible, Taylor drove more than 300 kilometres from Winnipeg to be close to family.

A memory Rachelle Lougheed — one of Taylor’s closest friends — loves to tell goes back to them being teenagers.

They were driving from a camping trip in Oak Lake and were on their way to Virden, where Lougheed’s brother was waiting for them.

Singing and joking around, the friends forgot to stop in Virden. They drove right past.

“I don’t know how we didn’t realize that there was a town there,” Lougheed said, chuckling. “We got sidetracked from jamming out, I guess.”

Her new memories with Taylor are made at the memorial tournament. It is a weekend she looks forward to all year.

“I want to make sure that Taylor’s family knows how much it means to all her friends,” she said. “The fact that we can do this once a year, all get together and play some hockey, it means a lot.”

For information on the minor hockey fund or to donate, email taylorhockeyfund@outlook. com.

Next year’s tournament is set for Feb. 16-17.

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