During the off-season, the women’s hockey team takes time away from competing to focus on volunteer work.

For the past six years, the team has religiously helped out with the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance’s annual Silent No More Walk/ Run for Ovarian Cancer (MOCA). This nonprofit organization seeks to raise awareness and funds for research in hopes of finding better treatment for ovarian cancer. MOCA has raised over three million dollars, making it one of the top fundraisers in the U.S.

The NMWR is held on Sept. 7, and the women’s team hockey helps out with a variety of behind-the-scenes activities to help the fundraiser go smoothly. Volunteering for the past four years, senior Megan Campbell has done a number of different jobs at the event.

“We help out with things like leading the participants around the lake on bikes, calling out the top three runners, and taking times at the finish line,” Campbell said.

As the highest grossing fundraiser in Minnesota, the NMWR draws over 3,000 participants every year. Not to mention it’s an outlet for the women’s team to give back to the community, and get together for preseason bonding.

With so many participants, the women’s hockey team had their work cut out for them, but with teamwork managed to get it done. The event can get pretty hectic, but sophomore Haleigh Bolton feels the coordination of the volunteers runs pretty smoothly.

“Since we’ve done this event for so long, we have a pretty good system of assigning jobs to girls,” Bolton said. “Our team captains send out a sign-up over the summer so we’re ready to go once we get there.”

The women’s hockey team plans to continue helping out for many years to come as they view their past efforts of volunteering as a success. The event brings the team together in the preseason for something other than sports, and junior Jordan Verleye believes it would be worthwhile to continue.

“It’s a great bonding experience for returners and freshman,” Verleye said. “Plus we’ve really gotten to know a lot of great people at MOCA, and would love to continue volunteering for a great cause.”