Ice Initiative
Member Paul Dupuis explains how he’s using hockey to support Himalayan communities.
Sitting on his balcony in the stifling Bangalore heat in 2017, Paul Dupuis received a call from the Canadian High Commission in Mumbai.
The official on the end of the line asked him to join a hockey tournament—the Indo-Canada Friendship Cup—in the Himalayan region of Ladakh in northern India.
After locating Ladakh on a map, Dupuis dusted off his skates and helmet and made the multiflight journey to Leh, a garrison town and home to the world’s highest ice rink at 3,500 meters. The moment he stepped off the plane and inhaled the frigid mountain air, it felt like a homecoming.
“It was an amazing discovery,” says Dupuis, 54. “I fell in love with the place…and I’ve made a commitment to go every year now.”
Growing up in Windsor, Ontario, the Club Member says he had a “typical Canadian childhood,” playing hockey with his father and brothers on backyard rinks.
“When there’s ice somewhere, Canadians tend to put their skates on and go,” he says. “It’s just in our blood.”
The sport remained a constant throughout his working life in Asia, but when he was transferred to Bangalore in 2017, he accepted that playing hockey would not be possible in the southern Indian city.
That first trip to the “roof of the world” led to a philanthropic commitment, supported by Dupuis’ employer, the staffing giant Randstad, and the UN.
“We wanted to use sport to build community and life skills, and to raise awareness about climate change,” he says. “Hockey just happens to be the vehicle we’re using.”
Starting with donations of hockey equipment to locals, Dupuis began coaching hockey at schools and giving lessons on leadership and career planning. Then, in 2020, the project “exploded.”
Dupuis was contacted by Viacheslav “Slava” Fetisov, one of the most decorated professional hockey players in history. The former Detroit Red Wings star and Russian minister of sport wanted to bring The Last Game, a climate change awareness initiative, to Ladakh.
After organizing games of pond hockey in Ecuador, Kenya and Antarctica, Fetisov had his sights set on a Himalayan backdrop for the next game. The match attracted hundreds of spectators, with villagers walking for hours to see the spectacle. Dupuis also helped stage a Guinness World Record-setting game at 4,361 meters in a remote part of Ladakh in 2018—the highest-altitude hockey game ever played.
“The beauty of this effort is that’s it’s purely grassroots,” Dupuis says. “We’d like to continue the spirit of The Last Game in a way that’s sustainable, rooted in gathering people with good hearts and a desire to make a positive impact on this special part of the world.”
With winter (and hockey season) approaching, Dupuis is already training for his next trip to the Himalayas—in January—with intense workouts in the Club’s Fitness Center.
“I only see the potential to do more, to make a bigger impact, to grow the community,” he says of his charitable efforts. “And to create a movement using sport.”
Words: David McElhinney
Image Paul Dupuis on the ice in Ladakh: H Havele
November 2022
