University of Minnesota Athletics
Grogan Helps in Growing her Sport
11/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
Women's Hockey's Alyssa Grogan helping her sport grow in more ways than one
By: Ellie Lijewski, CHAMPS/Life Skills Intern
Hockey is one of the longest athletic seasons, typically lasting from October through March or April. With games, practices, tournaments and traveling at least seven months out of the year, it is a great feat that members of the University of Minnesota Golden Gopher women’s hockey team can find time to go to class and earn their degrees, let alone find time to dedicate to helping out in the community. But many exceptional members of the Gophers women’s hockey team have made time in their active schedules to devote dozens of hours of volunteer time in the surrounding University environment because they feel it is an important and powerful way to contribute to their community. Junior Alyssa Grogan is such an example and has recorded 51.3 volunteer hours since the beginning of the last school year.
Grogan, a goalie majoring in business marketing and a member of the Under-22 national hockey team, has found a passion other than hockey: volunteering with children. She is involved heavily in the M.A.G.I.C. (Maroon and Gold Impacting the Community) program at the University which enables her to spend time with children from the HopeKids organization, read to elementary schools around the Metro area, and influence the lives of children by being a positive Gopher role model in dozens of other activities.
Grogan has visited Island Lake Elementary, Jefferson Community Elementary, Hale Community School, Maxfield Elementary, Golden Lake Elementary and Palmer Lake Elementary with the M.A.G.I.C. program, and has also been a volunteer with the HopeKids program, donating 16 hours of service solely to the HopeKids since April 2010. “I’ve always thought that what you’ve been given you should give back, and I’ve been so fortunate and so blessed to be here, playing here, getting an education, and it’s incredible how little kids look up to Gophers. It’s a lot of fun to be able to see them so excited to see us and that’s something they aspire to do, so it’s fun,” says Grogan of her experience working with children.
One organization in particular that has captured the heart and volunteer time of Grogan is DinoMights, a Minneapolis-based program that supports and teaches “hockey in the hood.” The DinoMights program was launched in 1995 by John Foley, a Minneapolis resident who saw a need for an initiative that incorporated sports, faith, academics and friendship. DinoMights does just that, touting an objective that states “The mission of DinoMights is to equip our urban youth to develop physical, academic, social, and spiritual excellence." The DinoMights offer hockey-based activities, community service events like “Teach 2 Skate,” where they teach about 220 first graders from Minneapolis elementary schools to skate, and tutoring services to students primarily in the Phillips, Powderhorn and Central neighborhoods in Minneapolis. Scott Harman, executive director of DinoMights, says that their program really strives for “whole life development” for their students and participants.
The DinoMights hockey program has grown to include five teams, multiple staff members, and many volunteers just like Grogan.
Grogan discovered the DinoMights organization when she was looking for somewhere to donate her outgrown hockey equipment. “We were just cleaning out old hockey gear and we were just going to throw it all away and we thought, well so many people just have this expensive hockey gear just hanging around their basement or garage or whatever, [and] the DinoMights were accepting donations for everything and anything…so I collected stuff from my youth association [and] we put out flyers and in the newspaper and we had an equipment drive for them,” she says of her stimulus for involvement with the DinoMights.
This drive occurred in 2008, just as Grogan was nearing the end of her senior year at Eagan High School, and she says, “[We] had my Trailblazer packed full of equipment.” The donations went to members of the DinoMights team and participants in the program for practice and game purposes. In August of 2010, Grogan organized another equipment drive, this time giving twenty helmets to the DinoMights program.
Harman lauds Grogan for her efforts in organizing drives saying that the “impact of a drive like that is…giving kids the opportunity to play hockey, which tends to be expensive, [and they] tend to be better students, get more involved in community and grow in faith... We can’t charge our families because we’re serving mostly diverse and low income families and kids that don’t have access to opportunities.”
Grogan also attends practices and skates with some of the DinoMights teams (peewees, girls team, squirts, mites, and mini-mites). “It’s a lot of fun!” she says, “When I went and skated with them it was really cool because we saw a lot of the kids come out in the gear we had donated and it was really great to see that.” Grogan, women’s hockey coach Brad Frost and several other teammates also attended the DinoMights Learn 2 Skate community service project this spring.
Grogan began playing hockey when she was eight, and says that one of her favorite parts about volunteering is that she can help others learn to play a sport she loves too: “Growing up I always had the opportunity to play and my parents were fortunately able to afford it, it’s not a cheap sport, so to give other people an opportunity to [play hockey] that otherwise wouldn’t have that opportunity is pretty exciting.”
Because of her involvement with the program, Grogan will be a special guest speaker at the DinoMights’ annual fundraiser, “Getting There Together,” on Monday, November 15 at 7pm at the International Market Square in Minneapolis.
Harman says, “Alyssa exemplifies our mission. She is really excellent in all four areas. Clearly her involvement in the community shows her social excellence [and] she’s a really good person for us to connect with.”
One of the DinoMights' big events this year is the unveiling of our newest team: a girls team for 3rd through 5th graders,” says Harman, “We believe that it is very important to be giving girls the same opportunities as boys in the sport of hockey. So we are very glad to welcome Alyssa Grogan to [our conference and program] to tell us of the importance of giving the opportunity of hockey to young girls, and also the importance of developing not just physical excellence, but academic, social and spiritual excellence as well.”
Grogan doesn’t just find time to volunteer, she makes time to do something she loves and feels is important. “I try to [volunteer] usually in the mornings, before practice, whatever fits in my schedule. Last spring semester I tried to do something once a week,” she says. Grogan’s drive and dedication not only to her academic career and her team, but to giving her all to inspire and change her community for the better, really sets her apart. Grogan’s donations of equipment, time, and knowledge have impacted the lives of the DinoMights players, and her efforts are helping to bring more “hockey to the hood.”
If you are interested in making a donation to the DinoMights program, they are accepting contributions year round. Donations are used to fund operating costs and ice time, to buy equipment and a portion is put into youth scholarship funds. The DinoMights are also looking for coaches, tutors and general volunteers. For more information please visit www.dinomights.com.
