Latest news with #LauraStacey
Ottawa Citizen
06-08-2025
- Sport
- Ottawa Citizen
'Giving young girls the opportunity to dream': Canadian Olympian finds gold in street hockey
Article content Heartbroken from Team Canada's loss to the U.S. at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, Laura Stacey found solace in a pickup game of street hockey. And then she found purpose. Article content That pickup game sparked an annual road hockey tournament fundraiser that not incidentally celebrates the growing success of professional women's hockey. Article content 'I think giving young girls that opportunity to dream that opportunity, to see what they can become is pretty special,' said Stacey, the great-granddaughter of hockey Hall of Famer King Clancy. She joined the Montréal Victoire of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) in 2024. (She also brought home gold with Team Canada in Beijing.) Article content Article content On July 5, Stacey held her sixth annual road hockey tournament in Toronto, and raised over $60,000 for Canadian charities encouraging youth sport and fitness. Another event is scheduled to be held in Montreal on Aug. 23. She spoke to the National Post: Article content View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laura Stacey (@laurastacey7) Article content Article content Article content No rain at all. Blue skies. It was literally a perfect day. We had 20 teams, over 140 players playing. We had 22 pros and some special guests. Kate Beirness did our whole introduction, which was absolutely amazing. Article content Basically, how it worked is once the kids in the community and all the players showed up, they threw their sticks in the middle and all the pros were given a team. We tossed the sticks around early in the morning, made the teams and all the different players got to play with different people. Article content There was a little 10-year-old French girl who came up to me so nervous in the morning that she wanted to play with her friends and they were split up because their sticks were thrown different ways. And by the end of the day, she came up to me and her mom said, 'This was the most amazing thing.' Article content By the end of the day, the little girl – who was so shy that she wasn't gonna be able to talk to anybody — was high-fiving and hugging and saying goodbye to her new teammates. So, pretty cool to hear. It was by far our biggest one yet. I have no idea how many people showed up, but it was packed until the very end. We ended up raising over $60,000. So it's been amazing to be honest with you.
Vancouver Sun
06-08-2025
- Sport
- Vancouver Sun
'Giving young girls the opportunity to dream': Canadian Olympian finds gold in street hockey
Heartbroken from Team Canada's loss to the U.S. at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, Laura Stacey found solace in a pickup game of street hockey. And then she found purpose. That pickup game sparked an annual road hockey tournament fundraiser that not incidentally celebrates the growing success of professional women's hockey. 'I think giving young girls that opportunity to dream that opportunity, to see what they can become is pretty special,' said Stacey, the great-granddaughter of hockey Hall of Famer King Clancy . She joined the Montréal Victoire of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) in 2024. (She also brought home gold with Team Canada in Beijing.) On July 5, Stacey held her sixth annual road hockey tournament in Toronto, and raised over $60,000 for Canadian charities encouraging youth sport and fitness. Another event is scheduled to be held in Montreal on Aug. 23. She spoke to the National Post: A post shared by Laura Stacey (@laurastacey7) Can you tell me more about the Toronto event? No rain at all. Blue skies. It was literally a perfect day. We had 20 teams, over 140 players playing. We had 22 pros and some special guests. Kate Beirness did our whole introduction, which was absolutely amazing. Basically, how it worked is once the kids in the community and all the players showed up, they threw their sticks in the middle and all the pros were given a team. We tossed the sticks around early in the morning, made the teams and all the different players got to play with different people. There was a little 10-year-old French girl who came up to me so nervous in the morning that she wanted to play with her friends and they were split up because their sticks were thrown different ways. And by the end of the day, she came up to me and her mom said, 'This was the most amazing thing.' By the end of the day, the little girl – who was so shy that she wasn't gonna be able to talk to anybody — was high-fiving and hugging and saying goodbye to her new teammates. So, pretty cool to hear. It was by far our biggest one yet. I have no idea how many people showed up, but it was packed until the very end. We ended up raising over $60,000. So it's been amazing to be honest with you. What does the money go to? It's our mission as a foundation, we've just become a foundation this year — we're waiting for our CRA number to come in the next little bit as well, because we wanna become a registered charity as well. Because we are now a foundation, we actually partnered with four different charities this year: KidSport Ontario, Fitspirit-Fillactive, a small chapter in Montreal for Jumpstart, and then Laureus (Sport for Good Foundation). Those are the four charities we partnered with and it's all kind of around our mission of helping kids and individuals find their passion in sport or just live a healthy, active lifestyle. What has life been like since the Olympics? What drew you to work with young kids? It all started after 2018. It was my first Olympics, and we had lost. We came home with a silver, and honestly, I was pretty lost. I had no idea what to do. I felt like it was the pinnacle of my life. Like I had been to the Olympics, but I was also so disappointed that we had lost. So I was kind like, what do I do now? What's next? In that short kind of period where I didn't know what to do, my sister and her husband were in town in Toronto and the two of them and my parents and myself kind of just went outside on our birthday one day and we were shooting the puck on one of the nets that we had. Eventually, a bunch of people in our neighbourhood kind of came out, and were like, 'Hey, can I play, too?' and it turned into this really fun road hockey game. My sister's husband looked at me and he said, 'Laura, why don't you do this? Why don't we run a charity road hockey tournament right here in this neighbourhood?' And I was like, 'Oh, OK. Let's see how it goes.' I basically just messaged all my teammates from 2018 and my Markham Thunder teammates at the time, and yeah, a couple other pro athlete friends that I was training with. I was like, 'Let's just see if we can pull this off.' If worst comes to worst, we just have a fun day with my friends and family, and my neighbourhood playing outside. It ended up blowing up. We ended up raising money, which we thought we were just gonna be able to cover our costs but we ended up raising, I think, $5,000 our first year, just out of the blue kind of. Then we were like, 'OK, well now, now we need to figure out what to do with these funds now that we've raised them.' So the first year we contacted two underprivileged schools and we gave sports equipment and sports supplies to the schools; those two schools that couldn't really afford the supplies. I went there for half a day to the schools and we had a little activity day and got to use the new equipment all together and play sports. It was amazing. I think from then on it was like, 'Wow, this can have so much more of an impact than I even know.' Ever since that moment, ever since that kind of initial spark of the tournament, it's just been something I'm very proud of, something that I want to keep pushing further and further and that's exactly what it's done. Can you say more about the mission of promoting women's sports? I think, honestly, my foundation's growth and the fact that it's become what it is is a huge part due to women's sports thriving in Canada. People, kids, young girls, are having the opportunity to see us play on a consistent basis with the PWHL and this league that we get to play in is completely taking off. Now all the fans are wanting to come to my event in Toronto and Montreal, and honestly, it is due, in large part, to the NWSL (National Women's Soccer League), to the WNBA (Women's National Basketball League), who've kind of pushed those boundaries before. When we arrived as female hockey players, we had that basis to push for, to ask for more. To see what Caitlin Clark has done in terms of ticket sales, I think, for women's sports in general, it's just gonna continue to move the needle forward because people are realizing that when it is available, when you can see it, people fall in love with it. I think giving young girls that opportunity to dream that opportunity, to see what they can become is pretty special. Even at my tournament, to have the parents come up to me and say, 'My daughter has always wanted to be an Olympian, but now she also wants to play in the PWHL. She wants to be like you guys.' It's pretty amazing to see, and it's just opening our eyes to how big of an impact that really is. This conversation was edited lightly for length and clarity. Check out our sports section for the latest news and analysis.
Calgary Herald
06-08-2025
- Sport
- Calgary Herald
'Giving young girls the opportunity to dream': Canadian Olympian finds gold in street hockey
Article content Heartbroken from Team Canada's loss to the U.S. at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, Laura Stacey found solace in a pickup game of street hockey. And then she found purpose. Article content That pickup game sparked an annual road hockey tournament fundraiser that not incidentally celebrates the growing success of professional women's hockey. Article content 'I think giving young girls that opportunity to dream that opportunity, to see what they can become is pretty special,' said Stacey, the great-granddaughter of hockey Hall of Famer King Clancy. She joined the Montréal Victoire of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) in 2024. (She also brought home gold with Team Canada in Beijing.) Article content Article content On July 5, Stacey held her sixth annual road hockey tournament in Toronto, and raised over $60,000 for Canadian charities encouraging youth sport and fitness. Another event is scheduled to be held in Montreal on Aug. 23. She spoke to the National Post: Article content View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laura Stacey (@laurastacey7) Article content Article content Article content No rain at all. Blue skies. It was literally a perfect day. We had 20 teams, over 140 players playing. We had 22 pros and some special guests. Kate Beirness did our whole introduction, which was absolutely amazing. Article content Basically, how it worked is once the kids in the community and all the players showed up, they threw their sticks in the middle and all the pros were given a team. We tossed the sticks around early in the morning, made the teams and all the different players got to play with different people. Article content There was a little 10-year-old French girl who came up to me so nervous in the morning that she wanted to play with her friends and they were split up because their sticks were thrown different ways. And by the end of the day, she came up to me and her mom said, 'This was the most amazing thing.' Article content By the end of the day, the little girl – who was so shy that she wasn't gonna be able to talk to anybody — was high-fiving and hugging and saying goodbye to her new teammates. So, pretty cool to hear. It was by far our biggest one yet. I have no idea how many people showed up, but it was packed until the very end. We ended up raising over $60,000. So it's been amazing to be honest with you.
National Post
06-08-2025
- Sport
- National Post
'Giving young girls the opportunity to dream': Canadian Olympian finds gold in street hockey
Heartbroken from Team Canada's loss to the U.S. at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, Laura Stacey found solace in a pickup game of street hockey. And then she found purpose. Article content That pickup game sparked an annual road hockey tournament fundraiser that not incidentally celebrates the growing success of professional women's hockey. Article content 'I think giving young girls that opportunity to dream that opportunity, to see what they can become is pretty special,' said Stacey, the great-granddaughter of hockey Hall of Famer King Clancy. She joined the Montréal Victoire of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) in 2024. (She also brought home gold with Team Canada in Beijing.) Article content Article content On July 5, Stacey held her sixth annual road hockey tournament in Toronto, and raised over $60,000 for Canadian charities encouraging youth sport and fitness. Another event is scheduled to be held in Montreal on Aug. 23. She spoke to the National Post: Article content View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laura Stacey (@laurastacey7) Article content Article content Article content No rain at all. Blue skies. It was literally a perfect day. We had 20 teams, over 140 players playing. We had 22 pros and some special guests. Kate Beirness did our whole introduction, which was absolutely amazing. Article content Basically, how it worked is once the kids in the community and all the players showed up, they threw their sticks in the middle and all the pros were given a team. We tossed the sticks around early in the morning, made the teams and all the different players got to play with different people. Article content There was a little 10-year-old French girl who came up to me so nervous in the morning that she wanted to play with her friends and they were split up because their sticks were thrown different ways. And by the end of the day, she came up to me and her mom said, 'This was the most amazing thing.' Article content By the end of the day, the little girl – who was so shy that she wasn't gonna be able to talk to anybody — was high-fiving and hugging and saying goodbye to her new teammates. So, pretty cool to hear. It was by far our biggest one yet. I have no idea how many people showed up, but it was packed until the very end. We ended up raising over $60,000. So it's been amazing to be honest with you.
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Laura Stacey is using road hockey to give back to the 2 cities that have shaped her career
In the summer of 2018, Laura Stacey had an Olympic silver medal to her name, and little sense of what might be next for her. Two years after she'd graduated from Dartmouth College, Stacey had just won the Clarkson Cup, the top prize of the now-defunct Canadian Women's Hockey League, with the Markham Thunder. But pro women's hockey didn't pay the bills back then, and Stacey's spot on the national team was far from guaranteed. "I remember my parents asking me early on when I graduated [in 2016], how long are you going to do this for?" the Montreal Victoire forward recalled. It was at her parents' house one day, after a neighbourhood road hockey game on Stacey's 24th birthday, when her now-brother-in-law asked her: why don't you do this? By "this," he meant organize a road hockey tournament. Stacey, who's from Kleinburg, Ont., north of Toronto, put together a tournament that August with the help of her pro teammates. Since then, it's grown into an annual event, called Sticks In For Charity, and a registered charitable organization, the LS7 Foundation, that has raised nearly $200,000. The money has gone toward helping children access sports and arts programming, among other causes."The reason we started this was just to simply get kids and people and neighbours in that community out on the street, off their phones, off their computers," Stacey said in an interview with CBC Sports. "That worked in that day. But how could we continue on that path of allowing kids, people, individuals the chance to play? And so that's kind of where it all came from." As the PWHL and women's hockey have grown in popularity, so have the number of kids and adults who want the chance to play a road hockey game alongside some of the league's biggest stars. This year's tournament in Toronto included Montreal Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin, New York's Sarah Fillier, Toronto's Renata Fast and Ottawa's Emily Clark, among others. It raised $65,000, blasting past the original target of $50,000. Her work with the foundation also earned Stacey this year's PWHL's Hockey For All Award, A Scotiabank-sponsored prize that recognizes a player's community work. The bank donates $10,000 to a charity of the winner's choice "that supports youth or grassroots hockey, with a focus on accessibility, diversity, and inclusion." And this August, for the first time, Stacey will hold a Sticks In For Charity road hockey tournament in Montreal, the city that has become her home. It's her way of giving back to a city that has embraced her, and grown her career to heights she may not have been able to imagine back in 2018, when the feeling of defeat at the Olympics was fresh in her mind. "They've lifted me up and I think if I can do anything to lift them up, and the community that I'm playing in, then I think that's exactly what I want to do," Stacey said. Evolving on and off the ice Growing up in the Toronto area, Stacey cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The name of her great-grandfather, King Clancy, hangs in the rafters of Scotiabank Arena. She wears the same number 7 on her jersey as he did. But it's been in Montreal where Stacey's career has grown the most over the last five seasons. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when most players were off the ice, now-Victoire GM Danièle Sauvageau got permission for national team players to continue training safely at Centre 21.02, the high-performance centre inside Verdun Auditorium that was built for the best female hockey players. Before the PWHL existed, it was a rare opportunity for players like Stacey to find everything they needed in one place. "The way it's helped me is just the professionalism," she said about training in Montreal. "I'm constantly surrounded by some of the best players in the world. I'm constantly surrounded by the best staff, skills coaches. Everything is just right there at your fingertips. At that point, it's on you to just want to get better." Since moving to Montreal, Stacey has earned an Olympic gold medal and three world championships with Team Canada, and has become one of the best power forwards in the game. Her speed and skill have made her a top-line player and a star with the Victoire, finishing in the PWHL's top 10 in goals and points last season. Stacey also led the league in shots. When she won Olympic gold in 2022, her name was often at the bottom of Canada's lineup. But Stacey's ability to do it all, from the power play to the penalty kill, will earn her a much bigger role in Italy this February. "I see what she does behind the scenes, the amount of work she's put into this foundation," Montreal captain Poulin, who is also married to Stacey, said at the league's awards gala in June. "She's so proud of it, and it's unbelievable. I'm very happy for her to get rewarded. To see what she's done off the ice but also on the ice, I think she's proven herself to be a great player in this league. I'm very fortunate to be able to see her evolve, day in and day out." Foundation to benefit 4 charities this year In Montreal, Victoire fans have embraced Stacey, even though she's not from Quebec. She's even trying to become a Montreal Canadiens fan. "This city treats me as if I'm one of their own," she said. "They've completely welcomed me with open arms. They've supported me. They've cheered me on more than I ever thought they would have." The same neighbourhood where Stacey trains, Verdun, will play host to the Sticks In For Charity tournament on Aug. 23. The proceeds raised by the LS7 Foundation this year will benefit four charities: KidSport Ontario, Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, Fitspirit-Fillactive and Canadian Tire Jumpstart, which is funding youth hockey initiatives led by Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender, Kim St-Pierre. In Montreal, it's a chance for Stacey to connect more with the community where she trains, and to see that impact up close. "If we can help some kids in the Verdun, Montreal community get active, get involved in sport, have that same opportunity me and my sister did, then I think that's a way of giving back and being appreciative of everything they've done for me," Stacey said. "Toronto and Montreal are both my homes, and so I want to be able to have an impact and give back to both those two cities."
