The South Carolina Stingrays and Neal Brothers recently took to North Charleston’s Riverfront Park, not for hockey, but to support the environment by helping build artificial reefs using broken hockey sticks. Five Stingrays players—Reilly Webb, Blake Thompson, Seth Eisele, Mitchell Gibson, and Jayden Lee—participated in the effort, working alongside Rink2Reef to create sustainable habitats for oysters.
The project, led by Rink2Reef, repurposes broken hockey sticks into artificial reefs that oysters attach to, creating natural filtration systems for local waterways. Oysters are nature’s perfect water filters, capable of cleaning up to 50 gallons of water per day. A single Rink2Reef habitat can house as many as 400 oysters, filtering approximately 20,000 gallons of water daily.
Josh Poore, executive board member of Rink2Reef, emphasized the importance of community involvement in the initiative. “It’s awesome to have support from the Stingrays. It's always great any time we can have an affiliation with a team and be able to build on a relationship to try to draw the community closer together to the team and to the world of oysters,” Poore said.
Poore also shared the origins of Rink2Reef, which was founded by Bob Wasno at Florida Gulf Coast University. Wasno, a marine center director and hockey coach, was inspired when his players asked about repurposing broken sticks instead of discarding them. “The science behind this program is that these sticks are completely inert in the water. We’ve taken something that was once trash and have turned it into a treasure for our rivers and inlets,” Poore explained. Since its inception, Rink2Reef has expanded to five chapters across the country.
Stingrays defenseman Reilly Webb was excited to contribute to the project. “It was really cool to learn about oysters and what these reefs can do for them. Broken hockey sticks may be garbage to us, but for oysters, they can be used for their habitat,” Webb said. He also added with a laugh, “I won’t feel bad breaking sticks now.”
Neal Brothers partnered with the Stingrays and Rink2Reef on this community initiative. Buster Griffin, Manager for Neal Brothers, highlighted the importance of giving back to the Charleston community. “It's always great to go back into the community whenever we can help the Charleston area in any way we can, and with great partners like the Stingrays, we're able to do things like this. It’s great that you can take something as simple as a hockey stick and put it back in the ecosystem to improve our wildlife and water quality.”
The South Carolina Stingrays remain committed to supporting the Lowcountry community and local conservation efforts. Fans interested in learning more about Rink2Reef and their mission can visit www.rink2reef.com.
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