The families take off from work to host the Flyers' peewees for the historic Quebec tournament
Around a 600-mile drive north of Philadelphia runs a unique and fascinating Flyers tradition.
Yes, a Flyers tradition all the way up in the province of Quebec, for families that can speak both French and English.
Families that love the game of hockey and the Flyers.
So much that they welcome 12-year-olds from the Philadelphia region to live in their homes every February when the Flyers send a team to the Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament.
"For us, it's like our winter vacation," Pier-Alexandre Bernier said last Friday. "We take the whole week off and we do it just for fun."
Bernier, the billet captain, came from parents that once billeted peewee Flyers themselves when he was just a kid. Now Bernier, his wife and two daughters are continuing the tradition.
"I did it with my parents for 15 years before, always with the Flyers," Bernier said. "It's a fun activity, it's a fun week."
Bernier's one daughter even took her peewees Brody Grill and Matthew Lux to school for show and tell, perhaps the sign of a future billet parent.
"I hope my daughters would do it also because it's just fun, it's just fun with the boys and with the team," Bernier said. "You become like hockey parents for one week."
The Flyers had nine sets of billet parents to host 19 peewees this year. Robert Shea's family is also a multigenerational billet family. The assistant billet captain didn't imagine doing this himself when he became a parent.
But he, his wife and children now have tons of Flyers gear.
"You always look forward to this week," Shea said last Friday, "and I wanted to give my kids the same experience I had."
The peewee Flyers' parents come on the trip to Quebec City. They are immensely supportive and the everyday backbones. But they stay in a hotel during the tournament and not with their kids because a fabric of the Flyers' peewee trip is billet families.
"Everybody celebrates in the summer the Little League World Series. This is that plus," Cindy Stutman, the senior vice president of community relations and Flyers Charities executive director, said last Friday. "These kids are coming to another country, they're staying with billet families — there's a whole culture to this that's unreal. We're really excited to tell the story this year."
Steven Sweeney was happy to watch his son Steven do well outside his comfort zone.
"Steven's more of a homebody, we're a close-knit, tight family," he said Monday. "And to see that he embraced just going to live with strangers for 10 days really just shows a growth level that I didn't think we would see in him. It has been amazing, it's hard to even get a phone call from him at this point."
The Flyers wrapped up their trip Thursday with an outdoor game featuring the peewees, coaches, parents, siblings and billets. Bernier, a regional payroll manager for a health system in Quebec City, enjoyed the game like a Flyers fan would.
He didn't have to go back to work just yet.
"My home office is all Flyers," Bernier said. "It's all black and orange."
