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Women's Hockey Hosts Team IMPACT Graduation Day
10/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Ice Hockey
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown University women's hockey celebrated Team IMPACT's first official Graduation Day as the team held a special ceremony for 12-year-old Angelica Negron on Friday night at the Meehan Auditorium.
In 2012, Angelica joined the Bears through Team IMPACT – an organization whose mission is to connect and cultivate meaningful relationships between college teams and children facing life-threatening illnesses. She now leaves as a proud alumna of the program.
"When Angelica first came to the team I thought that we were going to help her – help her get back into school, get good grades, and make her feel proud," head coach Amy Bourbeau said at the ceremony. "Now at the end, it's odd to me because I thought we were going to give Angelica all these things, and she's given us so much more."
On Friday, the Bears spent time skating with Angelica prior to holding a party to mark her graduation. The team presented Angelica with a special blanket made out of the players' t-shirts, a signed photo in memory of the fundraiser the team completed in her honor in 2013, and a commencement cake.
"Anytime Angelica stepped on the ice with her family it was just a refreshing moment to look back and remember that this is what hockey is," senior captain Lauren Vella said. "It's having fun, it's being young, and it's enjoying the game at any age. I thank her for reminding us about that."
A native of Greenville, R.I., Angelica was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in May of 2006. She finished her course of treatment in September of 2008.
"It's been awesome watching Angelica grow up over the past few years," senior assistant captain Kaitlyn Keon said. "It was really nice to see her on the ice with us and to see the passion that she has for hockey that we can sometimes forget."
As a Team IMPACT alumna, Angelica will maintain a relationship with the program but now has an opportunity to transition into a new routine. The Bears will also now have the potential to bring on a new Team IMPACT draftee in the future.
For more information on Team IMPACT, visit goteamimpact.org.
