After committing to Syracuse early in her high school career, Sarah Thompson thought she’d close out her hockey career with the Orange.
But she has always been adaptable and when the opportunity came to use her last year of eligibility playing at St. Lawrence, Thompson couldn’t pass it up.
After graduating from Syracuse with a degree in sport management and a minor in sport analytics, Thompson transferred to St. Lawrence, where she’s working on a master of arts degree in leadership.
Not only did the move offer her the opportunity at a secondary a degree and the chance to play in the NCAA tournament, but the Saints’ staff has fully embraced Thompson’s volunteer work through the non-profit she started called Sticks Together and plans are in the works to roll the mission of introducing ice hockey to children in disadvantaged areas opportunities into a planned team trip to a St. Lawrence satellite campus in Kenya.
“St. Lawrence has been absolutely incredible. I have nothing but phenomenal things to say about the people here. My coaches have reached out and asked how they can help and really embrace the idea of Sticks Together. I honestly couldn’t ask for more. The support from my teammates has been incredible, said Thompson.
This is Thompson’s third nomination for the Hockey Humanitarian Award and second time being named a top five finalist. Down time during the pandemic and conversations around name, image and likeness led her to create Sticks Together to provide children in disadvantaged areas opportunities to learn and grow through the sport of ice hockey.
Sports have been such an important part of Thompson’s life from a very young age that when she looked to give back to her community, service through sport seemed an obvious avenue to follow.
Growing up in Canada, Thompson said she was introduced to all kinds of sports in school, and she felt like whatever sports she was passionate about, she was encouraged to pursue. She felt like she had no limitations.
“Sports have given me everything. They’re the reason I started Sticks Together, the reason I was able to go to school on a scholarship and to meet all these incredible people. They’re really the reason I have had all the opportunities that I’ve had. I think that’s why I felt really inspired to start Sticks Together,” said Thompson. “Growing up, I learned so much from hockey, particularly how to work with the team, how to build relationships with other people, work ethic. That’s what we try to teach the kids – the power of building confidence through sport and making friends and being coachable, and how to achieve something when you work really, really hard.
“Those are kind of all the lessons that we feel we teach when we’re there.”
Thompson has traveled to Muizenberg, South Africa, Buenos Aires, Argentina and most recently, Tigman Village, Philippines, bringing along donations of recycled hockey equipment with the goal of teaching the game she loves.
St. Lawrence coach Chris Wells thinks that flexibility and the replicability of what Thompson has created is an underrated but important part of Sticks Together. Her passion and commitment to making an impact, no matter how big or small, has impressed Wells and rubbed off on her teammates, several of whom were part of the group that went to Tigman Village.
“I had no idea how much she was doing. She never talks about it, and she is looking for absolutely no fanfare whatsoever. She’s very motivated. She knows what she likes, she knows where her values are, and she puts her energies where her values are. It truly is remarkable what she’s been able to do,” said Wells.
Part of what makes Sticks Together successful is that Thompson is really flexible on what it is and what it can do. Her first two trips were just her and one other person. Some of the places she has visited, the local children play hockey an hour or two a day and then she spends her time doing other things with them.
“Sticks Together doesn’t have to be anything concrete. We go and we bring the equipment, From there, it’s whatever the kids are attracted to. If they want to play hockey, we play hockey. And if they want to play something else, we’re there to learn from them, as well. We create these opportunities for kids to learn and grow through the sport of hockey,” said Thompson.
The children in Tigman really connected with hockey. Thompson said she’s received messages from the teachers they worked with that the children are still playing hockey.
“In the Philippines, they just completely fell in love with the game, so we played hockey every day. There was a group of six of us women’s hockey players that went this time and it made a difference in our impact with the kids. We could break the kids into small groups, pass the ball around, teach them how to hold their stick and give them more attention, focus on more details than I could have done alone or with one other person,” she said.
The heartfelt connection to Tigman has meant that Thompson and Sticks Together continue to send donations to the village. A recent flood on Palauan, the island Tigman is located on, made streets impassable. Thompson was able to quickly fundraise more than $1000 to purchase food care packages for the area.
“It just kind of transcends Sticks Together as more than just teaching hockey. We are connecting with communities that we can help elevate around the world. One of the important things is that growing the game is one of the smaller goals of Sticks Together. It’s more about giving kids opportunities to learn and fall in love with something. The connections that you’re able to build and the community that you can help empower is the most important piece of it,” she said.
Thompson is set to graduate in a few months, which has left her without concrete plans on what comes next. She was initially hoping to plan her own trip this summer, but the St. Lawrence women’s hockey group traveling to Kenya seemed like the perfect next opportunity to combine her passions. She said the St. Lawrence staff has been wonderful in helping make connections and incorporate Sticks Together as part of the trip. The tentative plan is two days at a school with the full Saints hockey team volunteering and teaching hockey to the students.
“Coach Wells really wanted to make sure that if we were going to put the name Sticks Together on it, that it fit with what I represent. As soon as I brought up the idea of collaborating on our trip to Kenya, he and the staff were excited about it and wanted to talk more and figure out the details,” Thompson said.
Beyond that trip, Thompson said her hope after graduation is to work in women’s hockey. She’s retiring from playing the game but would love to work as an agent or client manager representing female athletes – particularly those who have causes they’re passionate about and who are active in community outreach, but don’t have the time or the resources to do as much as they’d like.
“I think what I’ve learned most from sport is the importance of balance and having so many different sources of happiness in your life,” said Thompson.
“That’s the powerful thing about sports – it’s able to transcend boundaries and bring people together.”
Read more about Sticks Together and make a donation for future trips at stickstogether.org. Follow along with photos and videos of Sticks Together trips in action at instagram.com/stickstogether_/.
