Canada's Sports Hall of Fame honours Edmonton community sports coach and program creator Tim Adams

Tim Adams was a CBC journalist when he started volunteering as an after-school soccer coach, and the program grew in popularity. He called it Free Footy. And since 2007, Free Footy evolved into Free Play for Kids, working with 26 Edmonton schools and over 500 kids every day. And this year, he was honoured with the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame's first-ever community champion. The power of sport often lies in accessibility. Tim Adams is the founder and executive director of Free Play for Kids, a registered charity in Edmonton, Alberta that supports over 4,500 youth each year with opportunities to play, connect with mentors, and develop lifelong social, emotional, and mental health skills. How do we create spaces where kids feel safe, they belong, they can play, and they can grow? The main thing that I learned was just how powerful a mentor is. Sure, coaching was going on. Sure, the sports were happening. But at the end of the day, it was really just someone showed up and cared about you. Back in 2007, Adams noticed a lack of structure in after-school activities for youth in his community. So he founded Free Footy, a school-connected soccer program. That single school initiative quickly grew to a league of four, then 16, then 64 schools. As demand increased, free footy evolved into free play for kids, broadening its programming beyond soccer to include ice hockey, basketball, and flag football. Now you just look at all the science and the data and the research will confirm the one caring adult can change a child's life. I have thousands upon thousands of stories of kids who have been on the edges of life and we've managed to slowly a day at a time and kind of pull them back from doing dangerous things or harming themselves or harming other people. Today, Free Play for Kids is a community built on the belief that good things happen when kids are free to play. We're showing our true belief in someone by holding them accountable to their potential and giving them all the opportunities to shine. For the number of times people say no to me and I have to keep persevering, so many people have also said yes to support what we're doing and believing in the community and believing that good things can happen. This award is for all those kids who never got someone to say yes to them.