Ammerman receives 2015 Hockey Humanitarian Award
April 10, 2015 | Women's Hockey
April 10, 2015
BOSTON ---Â Senior Brittany Ammerman accomplished a lot in her years at the University of Wisconsin, winning the 2011 NCAA championship, capturing two WCHA playoff titles and collecting a pair of WCHA regular-season crowns. In the record books, people will see that Ammerman, a gifted forward, scored the 10th-most goals in program history, collected the 12th-most points and her 160 games played were the fifth most in school history.
But Ammerman's biggest accomplishment wasn't achieved on a rink in the United States -- it actually took place half way across the globe. Ammerman, a gender and women's studies major with a pre-medical concentration, founded the Nikumbuke Women's Soccer League, a round-robin soccer league in rural Kenya. In the midst of leading the Badgers on the ice, while also balancing a rigorous academic load,
Ammerman found time to raise more than $30,000 for equipment for the upstart league.
For her efforts, Ammerman was named the 20th recipient of the BNY Mellon Wealth Management Hockey Humanitarian Award in a ceremony at Matthews Arena in Boston in conjunction with the 2015 NCAA Men's Frozen Four on Friday.
"It's a great honor," Ammerman, a native of River Vale, New Jersey, said. "I'm really appreciative of the recognition, not only for myself, but also for the women in Kenya that I work with. It's important to show that you can be a great student-athlete both in your sport and in the community, and winning this award demonstrates that."
"To me, it is a really big award as it recognizes her work outside of hockey," Wisconsin women's hockey head coach Mark Johnson said. "Certainly, what she has been able to do the past couple of years has impacted a lot of people across the globe. It's a tribute to her and her willingness to reach out and look at the bigger picture.
"I know her and her family are thrilled with the honor, and everyone associated with the university, especially our women's hockey program, are all proud of her for what she's been able to do."
Since its inception in 1996, the Hockey Humanitarian Award has sought to recognize college hockey student-athletes, Division I or III, male or female, who give back to their communities in the true humanitarian spirit.
Ammerman's journey to starting Nikumbuke Women's Soccer League began in the summer of 2013, when she travelled to the Lunga Lunga village in Kenya with 11 of her UW classmates to partake in "Health by Motorbike," an organization started by UW professor Araceli Alonso, a registered nurse and professor of women's studies at Wisconsin. During the month-long trip, Ammerman and her group travelled to different villages to help educate the women of the villages on health and to help train villagers on health initiatives.
While traveling to Kenya, Ammerman bought a soccer ball, which she thought the kids of the village would enjoy. The children in the villages did enjoy kicking the soccer ball around, but the women of the villages also found great delight in playing soccer. Ammerman and the rest of the Health by Motorbike crew realized that the soccer ball provided the women of the villages hope and an activity in which to participate.
After the trip, Dr. Alonso remained in Kenya and asked the women of the villages what they wanted to achieve in the next year. The women told Dr. Alonso that they would like a soccer league and that is how the Nikumbuke Women's Soccer League was born.
Ammerman started a small online t-shirt fundraiser to help purchase uniforms for two of the villages. She planned on going back to Kenya during the summer of 2014 to witness the first game, but a threat of terrorist activity derailed her plans of travelling for the game. The first game was played on May 14, 2014, and five more tribes were interested in starting teams, which put Ammerman back on the fundraising trail.
A huge fan of women's soccer, Ammerman reached out to Julie Foudy, who won the World Cup while playing for the U.S. in 1999. With Foudy's help, Ammerman was able to raise more than $30,000 for uniforms, shoes and other equipment for the upstart soccer league.
"I've been in awe watching Brittany navigate through a great senior hockey season, attending school and organizing a soccer league in Kenya," Foudy, who now works at ESPN as a soccer analyst and reporter, said. "Usually just academics and Division I sports alone are hard enough to keep up with! She not only fundraised the entire league's uniforms and gear, she has raised enough to sustain it for future years. These women in the remote villages of Kenya can now enjoy the thrill of playing soccer and the joy of being a part of a team.
"Brittany is a wonderful example of the power of passionate leadership and the dedication to help others."
Ammerman returned to Kenya this past March to help deliver more equipment and to witness the first-ever Nikumbuke World Cup. After a successful initial tournament, which featured teams from villages across southeastern Kenya, a two-day tournament is in the works for next year.
"It was truly amazing," Ammerman said about her recent trip. "To see the women playing purely for themselves and their communities was the greatest part to me. Their work ethic and determination was truly special, because they were solely competing for a trophy and bragging rights of their village."
Ammerman is the second Badger to receive the BNY Mellon Wealth Management Hockey Humanitarian Award, as UW men's hockey standout Erik Raygor was the award's third recipient in 1998.
In addition to her work with the Nikumbuke Women's Soccer League, Ammerman has volunteered weekly at the Capitol Lakes Senior Center and has also helped out at National Night Out, the Ronald McDonald House, the American Cancer Society and the American Family Children's Hospital.
"She is very focused at attaining her goals, whether it was a hockey goal or academic goal, and pursuing it," Johnson said. "Certainly getting the chance to travel to Africa and expose herself to something outside of her world and something totally foreign and new to her provided her an opportunity to grow and mature as an individual.
"She has had some hurdles to get over from a hockey standpoint with a couple of the injuries she sustained during her career at Wisconsin, obviously the biggest one that led to her redshirting a year. She showed great determination to get back on the ice and finish off her Wisconsin career with two outstanding years. Now she has an opportunity to step into something that has an impact on a large group of people in Kenya."
