Small-Business Success Stories 2009

Several former NHL players have made guest appearances at Heartland Hockey Camp to serve as instructors. They’ve included Tom Younghans, another former North Star, and Joel Otto, who played for Bemidji State University and the NHL’s Calgary Flames.

Jensen credits much of Heartland’s success to his wife, Sandy. “We as a pair are probably the best camp-owners-slash-hands-on-directors you’ll find in the hockey camp industry,” he says. “I don’t know of another husband-and-wife team that has worked 12 to 14 hours every day of the summer for 25 years. Sandy has done more behind the scenes than I have up front for the success of our company.”

Running the camp is rewarding financially, he adds, “but the rewards are much greater spiritually and emotionally because of the long-term relationships we’ve built over the years. I get e-mail updates all the time from former campers on what they’re doing and about how they learned to persevere and work through adversity. The life lessons they learned at the camp were a lot more valuable than the hockey skills.”