Women's soccer program wins national leadership award

The UPEI women's soccer program has received a $5,000 award from the national True Sport Community Fund for leadership in community sports development work.

UPEI women's soccer team captain Mandy Lise McKenna will be presented with a certificate of the award prior to the start of the team's home game against Cape Breton University on Saturday, October 3, at 3 p.m.

'We are very proud of our women's soccer program,' says coach Michael Redmond. 'Our athletes believe strongly in making social change--locally and globally. These young women are wonderful student athletes who represent themselves, and their school, community and country with great pride. They are a wonderful example of what sport should represent.'

The True Sport Community Fund is administered on behalf of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and the True Sport Foundation, a charitable organization committed to the belief that sport makes a powerful and positive contribution to the development of people and their communities. True Sport believes in value-driven sport founded on four core values of fairness, excellence, inclusion and fun.

The UPEI women's soccer program is a leader in community sports development in Canada, says Redmond. This year the team participated in many activities across the Island with the goal of making positive change in their own community.

Activities included hosting the annual 12-hour SOS Children's Villages soccer game; organizing a Valentine's Day teddy bear drive for the pediatric ward at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and indoor and March Break soccer programs; visiting seniors' homes; hosting a sports game day and barbecue for newcomers to PEI and Canada; participating in the Alzheimer's Society of PEI's Christmas house tours, the Tim Horton's Food Drive and the IWK Hospital Radiothon.

The players will sell pink winter hats on campus and at the men's and women's soccer games this Sunday to raise money for the Run for the Cure. And on October 24, they will volunteer at West Kent School's fall fair.

Redmond says that the soccer program's community sports development work is part of its 'Green Print' program, launched in 2007. Through this program, UPEI's soccer teams promote their sport, education and healthy living programs across P.E.I., and support special causes around the world.