Minnesota Women’s Hockey: Sidney Peters Wins 2018 Hockey Humanitarian Award

Minnesota Golden Gophers redshirt senior goalie Sidney Peters was awarded the 2018 Hockey Humanitarian Award on Friday afternoon in conjunction with the Frozen Four in St. Paul. Peters is the first Gopher winner of the award that dates back to 1996.

The Hockey Humanitarian Award is awarded annually to college hockey’s finest citizen and seeks to recognize college hockey players, from all divisions, male or female, who give back to their community in the true humanitarian spirit. The award honors a student-athlete who makes significant contributions not only to his or her team, but also to the community-at-large through leadership in volunteerism. The award is given not to honr Hall of Fame athletes, but rather Hall of Fame human beings. The Humanitarian Award is meant to be seen as a true measure of a person’s worth, not just as an athlete, but as someone who embodies those values that merit our recognition.

”As we’ve gotten to know Sidney through the nomination process, we have been increasingly impressed with her core values of volunteerism and her passion to make a difference,” said Matt Patrick, Executive Director of the Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation.

Peters has impressed on the ice, and with her volunteer efforts. During her Minnesota tenure, Peters has logged over 830 volunteer hours with various community outreach volunteer activities. Peters is a certified Emergency Medical Technician and has spent significant time with both the University of Minnesota EMS and the Rush-Copley Emergency Department in Aurora, Ill volunteering her time and efforts.

Peters traveled to Haiti during the summer of 2016 with Project Medishare, which is dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of all Haitians by empowering them to provide and receive access to comprehensive, quality health care. She spent eight days in Haiti volunteering at Hospital Bernard Mevs, the country’s only critical care and trauma hospital, as well as the only newborn and pediatric intensive care unit.

Peters has volunteered her time as the head goalie coach for Hockey Ministries International at the organization’s camp in Chicago for the past two years. Locally, Peters has jumped at volunteer opportunities with HopeKids, Special Olympics Minnesota, and University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital, along with efforts at local elementary and middle schools and youth hockey associations.

”Receiving the Hockey Humanitarian Award is a huge honor,” Peters said. “It places me in a category with past nominees and award winners who are just phenomenal people who have made a huge difference in their communities; most importantly, inspiring people around them to think and serve differently. I’m really proud to be associated with this award and really thankful to be associated with the other finalists.

“I got into volunteering as a freshman with the University of Minnesota Maroon & Gold Impacting the Community (M.A.G.I.C.), which is a student-athlete development program. They give us many opportunities to get out in the community, to volunteer with local schools and hospitals. That was my first step into volunteering, and it gave me the opportunity to meet people and build a community. That’s when I fell in love with service and began pursuing other opportunities, mostly as an EMT because medicine is my passion.”

The Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation also presented Peters with a check for $2,500 during the ceremony, which will be donated to her designated charity, Project Medishare.

Peters finished her hockey career with the Gophers this past spring. She was a four year letter winner and appeared in 82 games in net for the Gophers and completed her career with a record of 53-17-6. She has been the Gophers #1 goalie the past two seasons and she ranked 5th all time in Gopher history in wins, shutouts, goals against average, and total saves, and sixth in save percentage.

In the classroom Peters will graduate with a degree in Kinesiology with a minor in biology and has been accepted into medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences where she will serve in the Air Force. She is a four-time WCHA Scholar-Athlete, WCHA All-Academic, and Academic All-Big Ten honoree.