Why Flyers' Donald Brashear Devotes His Life to Mistreated

60¢ LATE SPORTS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2003 DAILYPHILADELPHIA NEWS THE PEOPLE PAPER 1918-2003 FAREWELL, ARTCARNEY PAGE 9 STEVEN M. FALK / Daily News THEICEMAN STARVATION CASE WHY FLYERS’ N.J. FAMILY DONALD BRASHEAR DEVOTES HIS LIFE TO MISTREATED TELLS STORY LOVETH KIDS PAGE 90 PAGE 3 BRASH FACTS THEICEMAN LOVETH Some insight into Flyers winger Donald Brashear: Pet Has a Pug named Buddha. Scoring Highest NHL single-season goal total is 11 during 1999-2000 season for Vancouver. Smell His favorite scent is that of oranges. Other sports Enjoys golf, and admits he’s better at hitting off the tee than putting. Transition Traded by Vancouver, along with a draft pick, on Dec. 17, 2001, to the Flyers for winger Jan Hlavac and a pick. Music Self-taught SEEVEN M. FALK/Daily News himself to play the piano. Donald Brashear (left) poses with young friends during visit to a farm in Cherry Hill. Language Fluent in French, his favorite subject growing up was English. Transportation A fancier of fast cars, he owns a Lamborghini. RE-ENFORCINGHOPE Relaxation His favorite FLYERS’ BRASHEAR SHOWS SOFTER SIDE IN WORK WITH CHILDREN board game is Monopoly. By MARK KRAM “Do you know why?” Brashear and says, “Mister, can you come back From its very beginning s in Bedford, Milestone [email protected] Scored a asks. again?” Ind., his own childhood was steeped career-high “Can’t even call her,” the boy con- in turmoil. His parents split up when 28 points for YOUNG BOY climbs up on tinues. Indiana roots he was just 3. The youngest of three Vancouver in the lap of Donald Brashear. childr en, he eventually went to live in A “Do you know why?” Brashear The big hockey player sees himself 2000-01. With big, searching eyes and a play- asks again. Montr eal with his mother, who mar- ful personalit y, the boy is one of five in these young childr en, the way it Dream The boy consider s the question, ried again and placed Donald into fos- childr en living at the Florence Klem- once was for him so long ago. Chiefly, If he could play then says: “ ’Cause she didn’t have ter care. Brashear never under stood one other sport, he sees it in their eyes, the yearning mer House in Mount Laurel, N.J., why she had chosen him and not one he’d like to be a enoug h mone y for me. ’Cause she to attach and hold on. Nothing is se- each of whom had been mistreated of the other s to get rid of, but con- shooting guard didn’t have food or diaper s for me. cure in their shattered worlds. Be- in some fashion by his or her parents cedes that he was “probably a lot to in basketball. and sent here by the courts to be ’Cause some people say she is on hind each of them is a world of hor- Rugged handle .” He says he had a problem placed for adoption. The boy is drugs.” ror, of pain so indelible that it leaves Led the NHL in with bedwetting as a young boy, and dressed in a Donovan McN abb jer- Brashear draws him close. “So you them unable to look at an adult with penalty minutes in that his stepfather handled it by sey and looks up curiously at the 6-2, know why you are here,” he says. any degree of trust. Ahea d: The un- 1997-98 with 372 wrapping him in a garbage bag taped 235-pound Flyer, who has come here “Your momm y is having problems, certaint y born of broken promises penalty minutes. at his waist. Half brother Danny Roy on this leafy autumn day for a visit. and the people here want you have a and that glimmer of hope deep with- remember s that scene from their The boy asks, “Is it fun? Being a nice life.” in that someone will come along and boyhood with chilling clarit y, the kid?” Dejectedly , the boy nods in compr e- love them. You can see it in the way Sources: Flyers hension. As he continues chatting sound of Donald crying as his legs media guide and Brashear smiles. “Yes, it is,” he they behave whenever a new face says. “Being a kid should be the best with Brashear, another boy climbs shows up at the door. It becomes an thrashed about in the bag. “It is still a Zack Hill, Flyers haunting thing to me,” says Roy, who publicist time in your life.” onto the lap of the 31-year-old left impromptu audition, a play for atten- The boy frowns. winger, then another, then a girl. tion intended to win over and per- is a Montr eal polic eman and the only “No?” Brashear asks. “Wha t is it Soon, there are five childr en there, suade strangers to look at them sibling with whom Brashear has re- that you would like?” clinging to his arms and climbing up twice and perhaps give them more mained close . “But someho w Donald “I want to be with my momm y,” the his chest. Giggling, one of them el- than just food and a bed. coped.” boy says. “Spend some time with her, bows another aside for more room. This is the cheer less world that but I can’t.” The girl then looks up at Brashear Donald Brashear knew as a boy. See BRASHEAR Page 89 PAGE 90 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2003 THEICEMAN LOVETH BRASHEAR yells, “Yeah!” Continued from Page 90 He asks them if they would like to come to a game. They yell, Brashear pauses and adds, “It “Yeah! Me too?” was humilia ting.” He then gathers them in a pri- Roiling anger grew within vate group and says, “Now if you young Brashear as the years are good, and do your school- passed, and he became a handful work, I will come here and take for anyone who had to care for you to visit my home .” him. He was sent to a foster fami- The childr en cheer again. Bra- ly in Montr eal, then a second just shear gets up to leave but is outside of Quebec . Neither was stopped by one of the boys, who able to control him. A voice inside looks up at him and asks: “Do you his head told him, “Something is have a dog?” wrong with you. No one wants you.” By age 8, he had landed with Fall frolic a third foster family in Quebec City. Brashear — who is black — It is a few days before Hallow- became a target of racial slurs in een when Brashear comes back elementary school and ended up again and takes them on a hay- in daily fights. Ongoing friction ride at Spring dale Farm in near- with his “new parents” over that by Cherry Hill. The childr en pile and other problems just drove into the back of a wooden wagon Brashear deeper into himself . brimming with straw and sit While he concedes today that he alongside Brashear. With a heavy owes a debt to them for hanging rumble , the engine of the tractor in there with him until he was 17, starts up and begins to laborious- he says it has been years since he STEVEN M. FALK/Daily News ly drag the wagon into the field, had spoken with them. Says Bra- which is dense with harvested shear, “I just keep moving for- cornstalks. The gray sky hangs ward in life. I do not look back.” tel lobby on the road and play low on the horizon as the wagon Sports became a place for Bra- some old favorites. “When I am at splashes through a puddle and in- shear to vent. He became espe- Above, the piano, it is just me and the pi- to a narrow lane that leads into cially skilled in hockey and at an Donald ano. I enjoy that aspect of it.” some woods. early age set the NHL as his goal. Brashear The guard is still up. “The woods!” one of the boys He discovered he could skate bet- does his But it is slowly coming down. shouts. ter backward than forwar d, so he thing during “Donald is so defensive,” says The driver leans back over his began his career as a defenseman Flyers’ win Fredric Cyr, 31, a human-r esourc- shoulder and reminds everyone before switching at age 17 to the last night. At es mana ger for a Montr eal truck- to keep an eye out for a blue heron front line. He had the size. He also left, he earns ing firm whom Brashear calls one by the pond up ahea d. had an appetite for hitting, which an assist on of his only true friends. “He just Brashear asks how everyone would serve him well in years to son Jaxxon’s never opens up to people , but for plans to dress up on Halloween. come as an enforcer. Roy remem- shot at the those of us who have been lucky A boy shouts: “A cowboy!” bers that Brashear worked ex- basket. enoug h to know him from the in- A girl raises her hand and adds: traordinarily hard to improve side, he is a very kind and even “A witch!” himself as an athlete , once run- shy man.” Another boy just peers out at The brooding countenanc e he ning along side him on a hot sum- the pond and says, “Wher e is that ALEJANDRO A.

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