Most children with dyslexia would not see it as a ‘gift’. But it doesn’t have to be that way thanks to the Calgary Flames Foundation for Life, The Calgary Flames Ambassadors, Steve Major, and EducationMatters.

Four and a half years ago, Steve and his fellow Ambassador Dave Lush floated the idea of the   Ambassadors running a Charity Poker Tournament (Steve and Dave offered to co-Chair the event),  with all proceeds raised going to charity and in particular, the Flames Foundation for Life. The Calgary Flames organization and the rest of the Ambassadors were 100 percent behind it. Since then, $1,275,000 million has been raised to support a variety of initiatives, including the new Ronald McDonald House (children's hospice), Okotoks Soccer, the Agape Hospice, the Fuel for School program, and the Viking arena. This year in February, the poker tournament raised $400,000. While the majority of those proceeds are being directed by the Foundation to worthwhile causes fitting its objectives, Steve was able to direct 5%, or $20,000, to a charity of his choice.

To decide where best to direct the $20,000, all Steve had to do was turn to his daughter for inspiration. She is an energetic and bright young girl, but Steve and his wife Jennifer could not understand why she struggled so much in school. With the support of her school and her teachers, she received proper testing. The results, along with an analysis of her school work, pointed to dyslexia. From there their daughter was able to receive extra help at school and even private treatment at the Rocky Point Academy, where she and her parents discovered there are creative gifts that come along with dyslexia and learned that many other creative people also suffered from dyslexia including Albert Einstein, Leonardo de Vinci, and Thomas Edison.

Unfortunately, many students are mislabeled "slow" or "dumb", when they are actually quite bright and simply have a learning disability. For example, dyslexic people are often very creative, because they actually think in images. They don’t understand abstract words, so they frequently switch letters of an unfamiliar word to try and make sense by creating a familiar image. Words like "the" and "put" are not as easily connected to images, unlike the words "barn" or "cow", for example. One of the tools of dyslexic treatment is to help these readers create their own images for unfamiliar words, so they can recognize them when they do appear. It takes time, patience, and hard work, but it ultimately allows them to overcome their disability so they can join their colleagues in learning. If not diagnosed, a dyslexic's world can quickly become frustrating when the reader is unable to recognize multiple words in a sentence, a paragraph, and on a page. Often the dyslexic's frustration goes beyond just switching letters, and can translate into an overall withdrawing from learning, learning very slowly, depression and self-esteem issues, and even becoming disruptive.

The Majors' daughter was fortunate that her dyslexia was discovered and is being treated. But it made them wonder out loud, "What do other families do, whose children don’t get the proper diagnosis or treatment?" This can be costly and finding the right resources is a challenge. They realized that others might not be as fortunate. It became clear to the Majors that directing the $20,000 gift to help dyslexic students might assist others. Jennifer did some research and made inquiries to her daughter's school, as well as to private agencies. All of these pointed back to Calgary’s public education trust, EducationMatters. With the $20,000 dollars, a fund is now being established in support of programs and supports for public education students in Calgary who have dyslexia: the "Fund for Kids with the Gift of Dyslexia".

Since its inception in 2003, EducationMatters now has over 80 funds supporting literacy, leadership, life transition, mentoring, students with special needs, financially challenged students, and now, students with dyslexia. To date, $5 million in contributions and pledges have come from the Calgary community to help Calgary’s public education students succeed in school and life.

This gift is a testament to the great work being done across this city by the Calgary Flames Ambassadors and the Calgary Flames Foundation for Life. The money raised reflects the goodwill of the Flames organization and includes support from its players, coaches, management, sponsors, donors, and volunteers. They should all be proud to have made this special gift to dyslexic students in Calgary, a gift that will last those kids a lifetime!