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Hockey fan brings artistic flair to the Tiger’s den

December 23, 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

If you have attended a Junior A Aurora Tigers home game this season, you probably would have noticed a bright, intricate quilt hanging from the wall of ACC1.

This was the work of Joan Levert, a Tigers superfan whose hard work benefitted the Aurora Seniors’ Centre, after the quilt was raffled off this month.
Moving from Toronto to Aurora in 2003 with her husband, Levert looked to get involved within the hockey community after having past experience coaching girls’ hockey.

Tigers fans Joan Levert poses with the quilt she created for the Aurora Tigers, and the winner of the raffle, Brian Walter. Submitted photo

Tigers fans Joan Levert poses with the quilt she created for the Aurora Tigers, and the winner of the raffle, Brian Walter. Submitted photo


In addition, in typical Canadian family fashion, all three of the Levert’s children grew up playing hockey.

“The background was there,” said Levert.

They immediately became interested in the local junior action and, in Levert’s own words, have been “hooked ever since.”

As an instructor of the Sewing Club at the Aurora Seniors’ Centre, Levert was considered by Tigers’ volunteers to be the perfect candidate to create a lasting piece of hockey memorabilia.

To Levert, taking on the challenge was not simply one of needling together a quilt, but also designing it to be unique to the Aurora Tigers.
After doing some research, she chose different patterns for the “blocks” of the quilt, patterns that reflected the spirit of hockey.

“I thought, okay, how can I design it to really have meaning for the junior hockey players?”

The eight unique blocks on the quilt represent friendship, speed, opposition, passing, back-checking, a ‘T’ for Tigers and two blocks representing the stardom that players desire.

In the centre lies a Tigers crest to bring the elements together.

“I really enjoyed making it, because it was the first thing that I had ever designed myself,” said Levert. “I had to mathematically work it out myself, it was quite a process.”

The labour of love took Levert two and a half months to complete, before taking its place on the walls of the Aurora Community Centre at every Tigers home game.

It remained there until early December, when it was won by Tigers fan Brian Walter. Levert was happy to see the quilt go to a good home.

“He’s a longtime fan as well,” Levert said, “and he has a son who really loved the quilt. So I knew it would be greatly appreciated.”

All of the proceeds of the raffling of the quilt went to the maintenance of the Seniors’ Centre building.

“We want that building to stay there for a long time, and maybe my children will be able to use it one day.”

So if you find yourself down at the Aurora Community Centre for a home game, look out for Joan Evert…Tigers superfan.

“Come August, I can’t wait for Junior A hockey to start…they are the best winter entertainment in Town, as during the game, the boys give their all and then some!”

         

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