News & Events

Evan Kosiner has been recognized as a caring Canadian.

The RTA School of Media 2012 graduate was recently awarded the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award for his work as the co-founder of Skate to Great, a charity that collects new and used skates for underprivileged children. Created in 1995, the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award recognizes living Canadians and permanent residents who have made a significant, sustained, unpaid contribution to their community, in Canada or abroad.

Kosiner attended the ceremony in London, Ont. where he was in the company of Canadian figure skaters and Olympic athletes such as Patrick Chan, Joannie Rochette, Eric Radford, Kirsten Moore-Towers, Dylan Moscovitch, Kevin Reynolds and Andrei Rogozine.

“It’s an incredible honour to win this award. I couldn’t have done any of it without the amazing team and the great people I get to interact with daily, so receiving it is really a representation of everyone who works at Skate to Great,” Kosiner said.

Kosiner has really hustled since starting Skate and plans on making the organization a household name within the next two years. In addition to events, skate collection, tournaments and media partnerships, the team is working on launching a new website in September with advertisements telling people how and why they should donate. The goal is to collect 15,000 pairs of skates by next season.

“Starting Skate to Great has been a lot like having a train leave the station. Once the momentum builds it kind of runs itself,” Kosiner said. “I find myself often having to build great teams of incredible volunteers who run our administration. Great leadership provides the space for others to fall down and get back up again. People make mistakes but from a leadership perspective that allows others to grow. Ironically, skating and hockey are one of the only sports where you know you're going to fall down before you go out on the ice, but that doesn't stop kids, they get back up again too. I think there is some major lesson to be learned there.”

Kosiner started Skate to Great with Canadian figure skater Kaitlyn Weaver because he believed that all Canadian youth should be given the opportunity to skate. The charity now has more than 100 drop-off locations all over Canada, and has collected and distributed more than 2,500 pieces of skating equipment to children who otherwise would not have been able to play Canada’s national game.

In February 2013 Kosiner teamed up with Courage Canada, a charity that leads the development of blind hockey, to host the first-ever national blind hockey tournament.

He credits the Digital Media Zone as the “heart and soul of Skate to Great.” People across the university have played a part in making the charity successful, including Rams athletes and staff, and students in image arts, early childhood studies, graphic communications management and business.

“It's year one of Skate to Great, it scares me to think where we'll be in a few years from now,” Kosiner said. “It's amazing to see how a school can support its students and innovatively bring resources together. Ryerson can take pride in knowing that a good chunk of the award His Excellency presented me is due to the student and staff support Skate to Great's received.”