Want to play lacrosse? Here's your chance

Youth across P.E.I. will have a chance to try lacrosse this weekend.

Over the last year, Lacrosse PEI has been making a special effort to reach out to kids on Lennox Island, P.E.I., and in the Scotchfort area.

On Friday, two players from the Bear River First Nation in Nova Scotia will be at Lennox Island and Mount Stewart Elementary to work with kids in those communities.

Saturday in Morell, P.E.I., every young person willhave a chance to try the sport, and get an introduction tobox lacrosse, an indoor version of the game thatrequires fewer players.

'Stick is very important'

Brad Bissett, who is helpingorganize the event, said for Indigenous youth, the appeal of lacrosse goes beyond the game itself.

"The stick is very very important. It has major significance in a child's youth. They're given one typically when they're born," he said on CBC's Island Morning.

"Kids loveplaying sports, and lacrosse is fairly new to the Island. And so the newness of that and holding a really cool looking lacrosse stick and getting a ball to throw around is a lot of fun."

Halifax hosting Indigenous games

Bissett hopes there will be enough interest on P.E.I. to form a team in time for the North American Indigenous Games being held in Halifax in 2020.

The event Saturday in Morell gets underway at 9:30 a.m. There will be demonstrations and games for kids up to 16 years old. At around noon, the Mi'kmaq heritage actors will tell the story of lacrosse.

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