Editor's note: During the Estevan Bruins 2019-20 season, we will be profiling the billet parents who provide a home away from home for members of the team. Thanks to Ryan and Mandy Irwin with Tim Hortons on Fourth Street in Estevan for sponsoring this profile of Gail Chilman.
Billet profile: Gail Chilman
Years as a billet: Twenty-five
Current players billeted: Devon Cyr and Griffin Asher-Moroz
The Estevan Bruins have been a big part of Gail Chilman’s life for more than 25 years.
And she has been a big part of the lives of many Bruin players as a billet mom and billet co-ordinator.
Chilman and her late husband Ed moved to Estevan in 1992, and she quickly started volunteering with the club. A couple of years later, a friend talked the Chilmans into become billets, and offering players a home away from home.
There have been times in which she has taken time off from billeting, but most years, you can find a couple of players staying at their place.
“There have been two or three a year for 23 or 24 years, so (at least) 50, plus those who have been in and out, so you have somebody for a couple of weeks or a month. They may get traded or they get cut,” she said.
She has remained a billet mom because she wants to help the team and continue to provide a place to live, although she admits that at her age, she’s more a billet grandparent than a billet parent.
It’s not an easy job, but she believes she gets more out of it than she puts in.
“I’ve never had that empty nest syndrome when the kids left, because there was always somebody coming back the next fall.”
She has stayed in touch with many of the players who have stayed at the Chilman residence over the years. The advent of social media and other communication tools have made it a lot easier to continue to talk to them.
“It’s wonderful to see all their wedding pictures or their babies being born or their kids going off to school.”
Chilman is in her second stint as the billet co-ordinator. She held the role in the 1990s and early 2000s the first time, and has had the role for a second time since 2011.
It’s an experience she would recommend to other Bruin supporters who are able to welcome a player into their home.
She remains an avid Bruin fan and a tireless volunteer who can be found in the office or at the rink on a nightly basis throughout the season.
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