The first key and backpack fobs crafted from the massive hockey stick — billed as the world’s largest — that once stood outside the Cowichan Community Centre are nearly ready for sale.
About 700 fobs, each with a laser-carved design, will be available for $20 each early in the coming week, said Bart Robertson, who took ownership of the 62.5-metre-long stick and its puck in the summer.
He arranged to have it removed from its long-time place on the side of the Cowichan Community Centre and taken to a workshop area.
Fobs, which each contain a piece of the stick’s handle, the puck and tape from the blade, can be purchased through his company website, he said.
Originally built in Penticton for Canada’s pavilion at Expo 86 in Vancouver, the Douglas fir stick found a home in Duncan. But it deteriorated and sections rotted as it aged.
It would have cost the Cowichan Valley Regional District, which owned the stick, $1.5 million to $2 million to replace the stick, so it was decided to put it out for bids.
Robertson didn’t pay anything for the stick but agreed to cover the cost of removing it from the community centre and to work with charities.
He’s planning to create an initial run of 6,000 fobs, created with four designs, each numbered. Each design is to be on 1,500 fobs.
The first group of fobs will show the stick in front of the community centre. The next run will feature an image of workers making the stick in Penticton, another one will show the stick on display at Expo 86, and the final design will be of young people playing hockey.
Each fob is about two inches (five centimetres) in diameter.
Also coming are desktop displays and cribbage boards made from the giant hockey stick, said Robertson.
A customer donated a 52-seat bus that was converted into a woodworking shop for the project, complete with lathes and drills.
Robertson said he’s prepared to deal with any spikes in demand, joking that he’s only used about three feet of the stick so far.
The plan is that he will work with local charities that could sell fobs to raise money, but details have not been finalized.
He said he was told by a family member of one of the original stick makers that a time capsule had been put inside the stick, but it hasn’t come to light yet.
Fobs will be available at maxwellsautocenter.com/ contact-genuinecollectibles.
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