Keith Bender got a little emotional the first time he saw the Memorial Wall and bronzed skates, honouring his former teammates, who died in Listowel’s arena collapse of 1959.
“A lot of memories, a lot of things are dug up and we deal with it and we motor on,” said the Listowel native.
Bender was sitting at the players bench with several peewee teammates when the roof of the Listowel Memorial Arena came crashing down. Seven of his young teammates died, as did Listowel’s Recreation Director.
The tragedy was hardly spoken of until Bender and a fellow collapse survivor, Pete Leppard, made it their mission to publicly acknowledge and remember their friends.
“For the people who had difficulty coming to this property after the arena accident, there were many of them, hopefully this offers some form of peace,” said Bender.
“They can come here and reflect, come listen to the …