James McClendon, Editor-in-Chief

On Saturday, December 3, the UC women’s hockey team will host a Gold Ribbon game for childhood cancer awareness. The game is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and will pit the Pioneers against Morrisville State.

            Special edition gold ribbon jerseys will be worn by players and auctioned off after the game, with all of the proceeds going directly to the family of a local child currently battling cancer. The family will be at the game.

The event will be co-hosted with the Rob Esche Save of the Day Foundation.

The women’s hockey team has put on this event for the last four years and has raised $13,000 for local children diagnosed cancer.

This event holds a special place for Laurel Simer, a former UC women’s hockey player, because she was diagnosed with brain cancer as a child.

“I’ve seen first hand what kids have to go through while battling cancer and it’s stuff that no one should endure, especially not kids,” Simer said. “Hockey was always my escape growing up and the one place I could still be a normal kid again, and not the ‘sick kid.’”

After she graduated and began working at UC, her former coach Dave Clausen, came to her with the idea for the event and she was immediately onboard.

“(The save of the day event) uses the sport I love to give back and help out other families who are going through something similar to what me and my family have gone through,” Simer said.

According to an article posted on ucpioneers.com, Clausen highlighted the success that they have had with this event and how much it has grown over the past 4 years.