Youth Hockey Community Supports Boy Recovering After Saving Brother from Icy Creek

Ashkan Thibodeaux is five years old. On Easter Sunday, he pulled his younger brother out of an icy creek. Now it is Ashkan fighting for his life, lying in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Minnesota in Minneapolis while the Iron Range hockey community that put him on skates this season mobilizes in his name.

Ashkan plays Mini Mites for the Greenway Area Hockey Association, the program that starts kids as young as age five and has built one of Minnesota's most storied grassroots hockey pipelines. In the hours after Easter, the Moms of the Greenway Mini Mites launched a community rallying effort under the name "Stick Together for Ash," calling on hockey families across the region to join a prayer chain and support the Thibodeaux family through what is shaping up to be a long and costly road.

The campaign spread quickly beyond Coleraine. Youth Hockey Hub, the most-followed youth hockey platform in Minnesota, amplified the #StickTogetherForAsh call statewide, drawing responses from families and associations well outside the Greenway area. The Iron Range hockey network, built over generations through shared rinks and rival jerseys, is now channeling that same solidarity toward one of its youngest members.

The incident is a stark reminder of how treacherous Minnesota creeks become in April. Unlike lakes, where ice deteriorates more uniformly, moving water undermines ice from beneath, leaving surfaces that can look and feel solid until they give way without warning. Children and families near waterways this spring should treat any creek or stream ice as unsafe regardless of appearance.

What the Thibodeaux family faces now extends beyond the medical crisis. Children's Minnesota is located in Minneapolis, hours from the Iron Range. Families in similar situations routinely contend with extended lodging, lost wages, and transportation costs that compound daily during a PICU stay, expenses that no insurance reimbursement fully covers.

Families wishing to support Ashkan can search #StickTogetherForAsh on social media to find active fundraising links and the latest updates on his condition.