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Neal Henderson Mentors Minority Youth on the Ice
For the past 30 years, Neal Henderson has mentored boys and girls through the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, which he founded in 1978, making it the oldest minority hockey program in the country. It is a developmental program that provides local and inner-city youth with the opportunity to participate in organized ice hockey.
The Fort Dupont Cannons, the team that represents the club, is comprised of young people between the ages of 8 and 18 with varying degrees of experience in skating and playing hockey. Besides teaching the fundamentals of ice hockey, the goals of the club are to teach discipline, provide a sense of purpose, establish self-esteem, and offer an added incentive to excel academically.
The son of a merchant marine, Henderson was born in Saint Croix, Virgin Islands. His family moved to the United States where, at 7, he started playing hockey as a youth in New York, Canada, and in the District where he attended Cardozo High School. His passion for the game of hockey and his desire to play professionally, constantly kept him connected to the sport through the late 1950s and early 1960s. He played for the Salt Lake City Seagulls of the Eastern Hockey league before joining four the Air Force. After four years in the military, he played for several ice hockey teams: the Baltimore Mercuries, Washington Patriots, and Washington Chiefs.
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