A father-son project in London, Ont. To meet the long-term needs of the son saw an “incredible” increase in demand in just one week, thanks to social media and community generosity.

Jason Smith, of London, Ont., Says he and his son Jakob have gone from making about 30 Canadian flags into hockey sticks to nearly 500 applications at a time.

The hobby started about four years ago with flags designed for friends and family.

Recently, Smith said that an old friend from public school he hadn’t seen for 40 years called “out of the blue” to ask for one.

“And I said, ‘That would be great, I’d like to make one for you. (But) we don’t have sticks. COVID kind of shut things down with my inventory of hockey sticks, ”he says.

“She says, ‘Well, let me let me post a message on my social media and see where this goes.'”

Smith says his phone started to “explode” and has gone from three hockey sticks last week to around 1,000 in his garage now, along with a long list of orders to fill.

“The response has been incredible. I can’t even put words into it, ”he told Global News.

“Snipe Academy is accepting deposits and I just got a picture of their side of their building from (Sunday) and I couldn’t even tell you how many are sitting there. And it’s just local. There are responses from Toronto, Ottawa, across Canada, from Calgary.

Smith says it takes about five or six hours to assemble a flag, but the whole process can take five or six days, although he admits he didn’t streamline it like he did. never needed before.

“At the end of the day, it’s still just a father-son project, that we can spend time together. But we’re going to be spending a lot more time together trying to fill all of these orders. I’m not kidding, between 400 and 500 people asked for a flag. “

While the project allows the two to spend time together and create, it also helps meet Jakob’s long-term needs.

“With kids with special needs you have to worry about what their future will look like, you know, 20 years after you’re gone,” Smith says.

“The sale of this product goes into a fund for him to cover all costs. We won’t know why he will need it, but it will be there.

Smith is also working on a special project in support of SARI, a therapeutic riding organization, after receiving a dozen game sticks from the Montreal Canadiens through a “local link.”

“Here I’m sitting with a dozen Habs game sticks and we’re running a saw through them – $ 500 sticks. The saw cuts these really good, ”he laughs.

“So what we do with this, it’s going to be a special edition. Jake, he’s also involved with SARI, which is a therapeutic hike in Medway Road, and they run a number of auctions throughout the year. So this one goes to them for one of their big auctions. “

Smith stopped taking orders on Sunday due to overwhelming demand.

In a Facebook post on the hockey stick flags page – which was only created on April 23 – he says there is no waiting list, but he will post again once he and Jakob are able to take more orders.