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Emma Johnson had a gift for bringing together female hockey players to play for a cause.
Today, the Emma’s Entourage team carries on that mission in her name. Johnson died of cancer in the summer of 2015, one week after her 38th birthday.
In the CRA tournament at the RA Centre over the weekend, Emma’s Entourage reached the finals, and as always, had fun doing it.
“Stuffies” made by a seamstress on the team, using Emma’s old hockey socks, are passed around by the players pre-game and sit on the bench during the game. One of the stuffies, the chief mascot, is an elephant — because they don’t forget, and neither do Emma’s teammates. The other creation is a Ninja, because the Inner Ninjas was an early team name chosen by Emma.
Emma loved Tin Tin, and so the Tin Tin dog caricature is on the team jerseys.
A stuffed ninja and an elephant made from Emma’s hockey socks come to every game. Photo by Ashley Fraser
Emma Johnson first assembled a team to help raise money in a tournament for René Faucher in 2010, after the local player suffered a spinal cord injury during a lunchtime skate at the University of Ottawa.
“Emma organized a bunch of stragglers. That’s how we first met her,” says Eira Macdonell, one of the Entourage team reps.
“For someone so young, she had an amazing ability to gather people together. She just exuded this great karma, and sense of inclusion. In our dressing room, she was such a force of positive vibes.”
On a life story post after Emma’s death, friend and teammate Angie Lennox-Hourd said she learned precious lessons from Emma, including to follow one’s passion, speak one’s mind and not put up with BS.
Emma had been a 21-year-old student while expecting a child, and still excelled at Carleton University as a single mom. After graduating, she packed up her three-year-old son and moved to Toronto to earn a master’s degree in linguistics at the University of Toronto. She returned to Ottawa to train as a speech language pathologist, taking extra French classes to get through the University of Ottawa course, which was only available en français.
Friends and family remember Emma as exceptionally bright and caring, cycling hundreds of kilometres to raise money for cancer research or MS.
As a young adult, she took up hockey and found great joy in the game.
Emma Johnson.
Initially, Emma played defence, but when she learned goalies could play for free, she took up the goaltender position to get some extra ice time.
Emma’s first cancer diagnosis came about five years ago, but she had been in remission when it returned in a different form in the spring of 2015. In her final days, she let everyone know that she had no regrets, and had tried her best in everything she did in life.
”No regrets!” is a team chant of Emma’s Entourage.
By June, the team of 12 will have competed in 20 tournaments since taking on the Emma’s Entourage name three years ago. The players come from varied backgrounds, play on various city teams, most of them mothers of hockey players and often raise money for community causes. This weekend, the Entourage will be in Burlington, Vermont, defending their Champlain Shootout title at a youth sport fundraising event where they have won divisional gold two consecutive years.
Emma might not be there, but her name will be — on trophy name plates and tournament entry forms, as well as nearly everything her hockey teammates do on and off the ice.
“We just wanted her legacy to live on,” Macdonell says. “All of us enjoyed her great leadership skills, even though she was so young.”
Last year, the team determined the mean age of team members was 47. Emma was just 32 when she started organizing a women’s team for the Faucher tournament.
“She was full of life,” Macdonell says. “We were all rattled when she died. It was just so unfair. She had so much to offer.”
In honouring their friend, Emma’s Entourage have shown their own mettle, raising money through jersey sales and other efforts to support a trust fund for Emma’s son, now a teenager. In the future, they will raise money for cancer research.
A humble woman, Emma Johnson would likely be overwhelmed at the lengths her friends go to ensure she is never forgotten.
“She brought so much to the world of hockey,” Macdonell says. “She was the type of person who would donate things — she just organized all of us so we would get the best out of the game.
“We want to make sure all of the things she stood for are remembered on an ongoing basis.”
wscanlan@postmedia.com
查看原文...
Today, the Emma’s Entourage team carries on that mission in her name. Johnson died of cancer in the summer of 2015, one week after her 38th birthday.
In the CRA tournament at the RA Centre over the weekend, Emma’s Entourage reached the finals, and as always, had fun doing it.
“Stuffies” made by a seamstress on the team, using Emma’s old hockey socks, are passed around by the players pre-game and sit on the bench during the game. One of the stuffies, the chief mascot, is an elephant — because they don’t forget, and neither do Emma’s teammates. The other creation is a Ninja, because the Inner Ninjas was an early team name chosen by Emma.
Emma loved Tin Tin, and so the Tin Tin dog caricature is on the team jerseys.
A stuffed ninja and an elephant made from Emma’s hockey socks come to every game. Photo by Ashley Fraser
Emma Johnson first assembled a team to help raise money in a tournament for René Faucher in 2010, after the local player suffered a spinal cord injury during a lunchtime skate at the University of Ottawa.
“Emma organized a bunch of stragglers. That’s how we first met her,” says Eira Macdonell, one of the Entourage team reps.
“For someone so young, she had an amazing ability to gather people together. She just exuded this great karma, and sense of inclusion. In our dressing room, she was such a force of positive vibes.”
On a life story post after Emma’s death, friend and teammate Angie Lennox-Hourd said she learned precious lessons from Emma, including to follow one’s passion, speak one’s mind and not put up with BS.
Emma had been a 21-year-old student while expecting a child, and still excelled at Carleton University as a single mom. After graduating, she packed up her three-year-old son and moved to Toronto to earn a master’s degree in linguistics at the University of Toronto. She returned to Ottawa to train as a speech language pathologist, taking extra French classes to get through the University of Ottawa course, which was only available en français.
Friends and family remember Emma as exceptionally bright and caring, cycling hundreds of kilometres to raise money for cancer research or MS.
As a young adult, she took up hockey and found great joy in the game.
Emma Johnson.
Initially, Emma played defence, but when she learned goalies could play for free, she took up the goaltender position to get some extra ice time.
Emma’s first cancer diagnosis came about five years ago, but she had been in remission when it returned in a different form in the spring of 2015. In her final days, she let everyone know that she had no regrets, and had tried her best in everything she did in life.
”No regrets!” is a team chant of Emma’s Entourage.
By June, the team of 12 will have competed in 20 tournaments since taking on the Emma’s Entourage name three years ago. The players come from varied backgrounds, play on various city teams, most of them mothers of hockey players and often raise money for community causes. This weekend, the Entourage will be in Burlington, Vermont, defending their Champlain Shootout title at a youth sport fundraising event where they have won divisional gold two consecutive years.
Emma might not be there, but her name will be — on trophy name plates and tournament entry forms, as well as nearly everything her hockey teammates do on and off the ice.
“We just wanted her legacy to live on,” Macdonell says. “All of us enjoyed her great leadership skills, even though she was so young.”
Last year, the team determined the mean age of team members was 47. Emma was just 32 when she started organizing a women’s team for the Faucher tournament.
“She was full of life,” Macdonell says. “We were all rattled when she died. It was just so unfair. She had so much to offer.”
In honouring their friend, Emma’s Entourage have shown their own mettle, raising money through jersey sales and other efforts to support a trust fund for Emma’s son, now a teenager. In the future, they will raise money for cancer research.
A humble woman, Emma Johnson would likely be overwhelmed at the lengths her friends go to ensure she is never forgotten.
“She brought so much to the world of hockey,” Macdonell says. “She was the type of person who would donate things — she just organized all of us so we would get the best out of the game.
“We want to make sure all of the things she stood for are remembered on an ongoing basis.”
wscanlan@postmedia.com
查看原文...
