Fundraiser at Boston Blades Game

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – It has been nearly a year since Yale women’s ice hockey center Mandi Schwartz ’10 (1988-2011) passed away after battling cancer for more than two years. Yet she continues to inspire efforts by her Bulldog teammates to help others.

After the final game of the 2011-12 season at Harvard on Saturday afternoon Feb. 18, the Yale team traveled North instead of heading right home to New Haven. The Bulldogs attended a Boston Blades Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) game in Reading, Mass., that served as a fundraiser for the Mandi Schwartz Foundation — the charity that Yale senior captain Aleca Hughes (Westwood, Mass.) started in Mandi’s memory.

Donations for the foundation were accepted at the game, and t-shirts from the most recent “White Out for Mandi” (the Yale team’s annual fundraiser at Ingalls Rink) were available as well. Hughes dropped the ceremonial first puck and sophomore forward Patricia McGauley (Wilcox, Sask.), who is from the same home town and high school as Mandi, sang the National Anthem. The Blades’ roster features two players with Yale connections — Bray Ketchum ’11 and assistant coach Jessica Koizumi. Koizumi had a pair of goals and Ketchum had an assist as the Blades beat Burlington 6-0.