A Foundation for the Future
HIBCO Construction is a growing business run by one family, but you don’t have to carry the same last name to be family: meet Michel Hetu and Moe Barzagar. “Through business I had met Moe and his brothers, in 2015. It was during a project at West Edmonton Mall. We were big supporters of each other” explained Hetu “and then we joined forces last year (2022)”.
Hetu joined HIBCO with Moe’s brothers, Hani and Matti, while Moe and his brothers have taken on First General Edmonton — a restoration company. Looking back on where the two men started from, it’s clear that both these men needed personal restoration in their lives.
Moe and his five siblings were raised by a single mother. Their story is one that involved leaning on The Edmonton Food Bank when they were kids, so life wasn’t always easy and stomachs were often less than full. It’s the story of a mom doing everything she could possibly could, but still needing some help.
All these decades later, Moe and his Family are the ones offering that support. To give one example in many, at their work place, which employs some 165 people, they have a peg board in the office. It’s an initiative to get their staff involved in giving back to the community. “We will always be big on the Edmonton Food Bank, but we wanted our staff to have a say on non-profit and charitable organizations they were passionate about” explained Barzagar “and so we wanted to help support a program like the Paws Animal Rescue Calendar. We don’t want to only push our causes but instead open up new levels of inspiration.”
As a kid Michel Hetu was inspired by the game of hockey and he was pretty good at it. “I played for the Maple Leaf Athletic Club in the early 2000’s and was playing Bantam AAA and was the team MVP” said Hetu “Hockey was the thing that kept me grounded. It taught me teamwork.”
The game of life wasn’t always as easy. “I was born to a 15-year-old mom in 1986. We lived in B.C. but the day before kindergarten my mom went to Edmonton, so I stayed with my grandparents. Eventually I went to live with my mom. My mom did everything she could.” Including giving Michel a chance to play hockey. It was on a work-related trip that Hetu ran into his old coach ,Wyan Shankaruk, who is a Sport Central Board member and the force behind the Champions Club. “Back then the coaches seemed so much older, but really it was a young staff and Wyan was only 8-9 years older than me. I was going through a rough patch…” explained the 37-year-old father of one “We had been evicted from the place we lived in, I was expelled from junior high school…Wyan and the group were huge mentors for me; they were there every step of the way. I remember going to practice early and met with Wyan. He spoke with me about what was going on. It was not in the way of punishment, but support.”
It’s what made Michel’s unexpected reunion with his old coach at a BEX conference in Kananaskis last Spring so special and meaningful… And Moe was there as well. Once each of them heard about the Champions Club initiative: how becoming a member at $500 a year would impact the lives of kids so drastically, it was easy to nail down HIBCO Construction. “Just through conversation we talked about what everyone was doing. Moe and I were like ‘let us know how we can help’” said Hetu” with the positive impact that Sport Central and the Champions Club can have on other kids, we were game to become members.” Through HIBCO Construction, Moe Barzagar and Michel Hetu are helping give kids a stronger foundation for the future.