Number 113
Image source: Sarah Thompson
Sarah Thompson and "Sticks Together" Win Hockey Humanitarian Award
Featured Focus:
Athlete-Driven impact, Youth Development,
Global Development
Scope of Impact: Global
Sarah Thompson, an NCAA hockey player at St. Lawrence University, is redefining the student-athlete paradigm, earning two prestigious awards for her global humanitarian efforts. Here’s the breakdown:
For The Youth: Thompson founded 'Sticks Together,' a non-profit delivering hockey opportunities to underprivileged youth worldwide. This initiative provides essential recycled equipment and direct coaching, making the sport accessible and fostering community development across continents.
Dual Prestigious Honors: She secured the 2025 Hockey Humanitarian Award for exemplary civic engagement and the Sarah Devens Award for leadership. The latter includes a $15,000 post-graduate scholarship, validating her comprehensive influence and investing in her continued impact beyond the rink.
Worldwide Reach: Her foundation has executed impactful missions in Argentina and South Africa, with the Philippines next on the agenda. This demonstrates hockey's power to bridge cultural divides, ignite joy, and provide life-changing experiences for children who might otherwise lack such opportunities.
Sarah Thompson's 'Sticks Together' is a great story of strategic empowerment. Her ingenious use of recycled equipment tackles critical accessibility barriers, while simultaneously promoting environmental sustainability. We love that Thompson was bold enough to dream of a global reach and execute on that vision.
The use of hockey as an universal language is somewhat surprising, especially in country like Argentina or South Africa. But at its core, ‘Sticks Together’ is about forging connections, bridging cultural divides, and igniting pure joy through sports. If that’s not a WIN | WIN, we don’t know what is.
This model is inspiring. It shows how passion, discipline, and intelligent execution can create a global movement, proving that sports can be a formidable force for unity and opportunity.
We love this initiative, and feel like it could easily reach next-level impact with the right partnerships. It’d be a WIN | WIN for a brand, and for ‘Sticks Together,’ to join forces to amplify their efforts.
Our no-brainer thought: the NHL and PWHL could easily add to the mix to help scale the org’s reach. What league wouldn’t want to build fandom and sell merch worldwide?
Our product thought: Bauer, CCM, or any number of other hockey equipment brands would make a super logical pairing. One of the key elements of ‘Sticks Together’ is equipment donation, so getting financial and product support right from the source would be the ultimate score.
Our stretch thought: A mega team-ownership group, like Monumental Sports and Entertainment (which owns most of the major DC sports franchises, including the the NHL’s Capitals) or Smith Entertainment Group (which owns most of Utah’s major sports franchises, including the NHL’s Utah Mammoth) could leverage sponsorship of ‘Sticks Together’ as a way to expand the social impact they’re already making locally to a broader, global market. They’ve got the funding, it’s a great PR play, and it’s a direct line to making their teams synonymous with positive change worldwide.
So much good is being done by student-athletes. In just the last few weeks alone, we’ve highlighted more initiatives led by students than we can count. And while they often have a local impact, this one’s much bigger. It begs the question: as a community dedicated to using sports for social good, how can we help scale more local efforts to reach beyond our front steps?
