I do agree that this is a beautiful letter that was written by Nilgiri Pearson, who is a lifelong Sudburian. He studied history at Laurentian University and law at Trinity College in Dublin. He is currently a finishing a master of arts in humanitarian action. And he is the co-coordinator of Lifeline Sudbury, an umbrella group working with private sponsors of refugees in Sudbury.

His article goes on to talk about the building of the railroad way back. Sudbury is “a city of immigrants. The irony is that ... for old-stock Sudburians, digging down to demonstrate how deep your roots in the region go only brings you closer to someone from somewhere else.

“Every one of the railwaymen”—they were all men—“who spent the spring and summer of 1883 cutting lines for the CPR across” Nickel Belt, the “outcrops, and on through the dense ... brush that covered ... were” all “newcomers. It was a bit like Noah’s Ark.... Among these men were representatives of Sudbury’s now-iconic ethnic communities”—and one of them is the Croatian community.

“They founded communities within a community and over the next half-century welcomed an ... influx of immigrants, many fleeing ... instability and economic privation in Europe”—many of them Croatian.

The story goes on about the Croatian soccer club in Sudbury. You have to realize that some of those Croatian descendants have been playing soccer for the Croatian team in Sudbury for 58 years. When you play in the same tournament year after year, facing many of the very same opponents, there are relationships that are built between people of Croatian descent from all over Ontario and part of the US.

For the better part of the 58 years of the Croatian national soccer tournament between Canada and the US, what we call Croatia Adria—this is the name of the Croatian soccer club in Sudbury—have entered every single one, every single year. They assemble a core of local players. They travel to Hamilton, to Toronto, to London and across the border to Milwaukee, Chicago and New York. There are some very well-known Croatian players in Sudbury. One of them is Mr. Prodanovic, who played, I would, say in every one of those. He unfortunately passed recently, but he certainly made a big mark on Sudbury as well as on the soccer club.

The local crew has been very thankful because they did become front and centre when Croatia Adria, from Sudbury, broke through to capture the prestigious showdown for the very first time in September last year, celebrating their victory at the communal gathering place off of Frood Road that weekend. They called it the torch being passed on.

While long-time men’s league defensive player Martin Martic was still there, he was filling the role of team manager after accompanying Prodanovic, the man I was just talking about, and so many others on this annual Labour Day weekend game, and he brought in a new generation. When you come home with a trophy, a lot of people start to look at you and a lot of younger Croatian men—it’s a men’s league—are interested in joining the league.

They went on to say that Laurentian University coach Tony Tagliafierro played a big part in teaching the Croatian team and bringing them to victory and they were happy for that.

I can go on to name the team that they played against and how they won, but what I really wanted to share is how proud our community was, how much they supported the Croatian team. It was a really nice gathering for everybody. Happy events like this in a community make our community stronger, make our community closer to one another and that was really, really nice to see.

I know that the member has talked about a Croatian man that is a big leader of our community. His name is Dario Zulich. Dario Zulich was mentioned as one of the very well-known Croatian men throughout Ontario who happens to be in our community. He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. He holds an honours degree in business administration. He returned to Sudbury to lead his family business as general manager of Zulich Enterprises, one of the largest real estate and developers in northeastern Ontario. For almost 20 years he continues to be the CEO of TESC Contracting, one of Ontario’s largest industrial contracting business—all this coming from a Croatian immigrant to our province.

In recent years he has acquired four incredible sports teams. The first one is the Sudbury Wolves Hockey Club. The Sudbury Wolves are an OHL team located in Sudbury. They play in downtown Sudbury on a regular basis. I can tell you that the arena presently holds 4,500 seats and on Friday, when they played, they had sold over 5,000 tickets. That means that a lot of us get to stand for the whole game because you don’t get assigned a seat because the arena is packed.

This is in part the work of Dario Zulich. Dario is always there, at every game. He will come and walk around, and basically talks to anybody who wants to talk to him. He’s always dressed in black pants and a very nice, crisp white shirt. He always has a big smile. At every game, you will see Dario. He will walk through the arena and he will talk to people. He will ask them anything: “Is the music too loud? Do you like the popcorn? Is this okay?” He really wants it to be a fun event for everybody, and it is. As I said, every home game of the Sudbury Wolves, the arena is packed. I will go on to some of the special events that they do.

He also acquired the Spartans football club, which is the local men’s football club. He is the owner of the Sudbury Five basketball team. We never had a basketball team in Sudbury before. We had the teams that play for the college and the university. Laurentian University’s men’s and women’s basketball teams have done very well. But now we have a professional basketball team, thanks to Dario Zulich.

The professional basketball team is just so, so much fun. It’s always packed with a lot of families, a lot of kids. They really make it interesting. They will come on and ask you to clap in a certain way or cheer in a certain way, and if you do, then the camera comes on you and everyone can see that you’re cheering the right way—but only for children. So if you have children with you and they will tell you to clap this way or cheer that way, if a kid goes on, you will see him or her on the big screen. It makes it a lot of fun.

A lot of young people are now interested in basketball, interested in playing sports, because, again, Dario Zulich brought professional basketball to Sudbury, and people really, really enjoy it. Last fall, he just brought a professional soccer team to Sudbury, so it will be interesting to see what the next season will look like.

This is what he has done with sports. It has attracted new tourists who come to our region and also expanded the opportunity for employment. Laurentian University has a big program for sport, so a lot of the people who manage the sports teams, who support the players and all of this, are graduates of our local university. That works.

Dario, over the years, has served as a member of various boards within the city of Greater Sudbury, including the United Way Centraide, the Sudbury and district chamber of commerce, and the Laurentian University Next 50 Campaign. And he was the chair of the YMCA building committee for the Centre for Life. The YMCA and the Centre for Life share a building. The Centre for Life focuses more on elderly people, while the YMCA is a regular YMCA where you have a big pool and you have sports activities for every age group. Our Sudbury wellness hub is also within the Sudbury YMCA.

I wanted to share this because Dario is also the co-founder of the Wolves United organization. It’s a partnership to raise support and funding for youth mental health. We all know that the demand for support for youth who are dealing with mental health issues has risen exponentially through the pandemic and after. The new Sudbury wellness hub within the YMCA in Sudbury has done a lot of wonderful work trying to connect with youth. A lot of them, unfortunately, become homeless. A lot of them start to experiment with drugs. A lot of them choose a path that is not healthy. The youth wellness hub is able to connect with those youth, establish a relationship and then bring them into care and treatment when they’re ready to do that.

And Dario Zulich: Coming back to the Sudbury Wolves, there will often be a 50/50 draw and there will often be a special fundraiser specifically for youth mental health. There will be special nights that recognize—it was le Mois de la Francophonie, Francophonie Month, this month. It was the international day of francophones yesterday, so they had a special francophone event at the Sudbury Wolves, where the entire game was chronicled in French. So as they say “they pass the puck, they shoot, they score,” etc., it was all done in French by a very talented person who can describe a hockey game way better than I ever will, but it was to show the community—all this comes from a Croatian immigrant to our city.

Our city is very fortunate to have had a strong Croatian community, and we will be more than happy to support that May 31 becomes Croatian Heritage Day—la Loi proclamant le Jour du patrimoine croate. This is something that our community will celebrate. I have no doubt that the MPP for Sudbury and I will be there on May 31 at the Croatian hall, and I assure you that there will be big celebrations. There will be good food. There will be flags all over the place. People will have their uniforms that look like the Croatian flag that they wear on special occasions, and our community will rally behind this because we know how lucky our community has been to have this community within us.

Thank you for bringing this bill forward.