The Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation announced the five finalists for the 2025 Hockey Humanitarian Award, and Bemidji State's Kendra Fortin was named as one of the five finalists. The award is presented annually to college hockey’s “finest citizen” for leadership in community service. For the first time ever, four of the five finalists are female student-athletes. 

Since the establishment of the award in 1996, the WCHA has had three recipients: Wisconsin's Brittany Ammerman (2015), Minnesota's Sidney Peters (2018), and Minnesota Duluth's Gabbie Hughes (2023).

The 30th recipient of the Hockey Humanitarian Award will be honored in a ceremony on Friday, April 11 as part of the NCAA Men’s Frozen Four weekend in St. Louis, Mo. Additionally, the Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation will make donations to the charity most important to each of the five finalists. 

To view the full release, visit Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation here. 

Since her arrival on campus as a freshman at Bemidji State in the fall of 2021, Kendra Fortin has been an advocate for organ donation, using her platform as a Division I Women’s Hockey student-athlete to inform the Bemidji community about the importance of registering as an organ donor. It is a passion that was borne out of an acute family circumstance. When she was nine-years old, Kendra’s dad, Cory, was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure. He was told he would need a kidney transplant to live. Years passed with no match; meanwhile, Kendra had committed to attend and play hockey at Bemidji State. That’s when she started the “Kidney for Cory” campaign in her hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Thankfully, the campaign was a success: in June 2021, Cory received a life-saving kidney transplant from a deceased donor. Without organ donors, Cory wouldn’t be here today. Since then, Kendra has devoted her time to raise awareness for organ donation. For the past three seasons, she has organized an Organ Donation Awareness weekend at both Bemidji State Men’s and Women’s Hockey games. Each year, Kendra creates informational pamphlets, t-shirts and donor bracelets to be given to fans, teams and staff members. She also works closely with the BSU Athletic Media Relations staff to maximize local media coverage, while organizing social media posts to promote organ donation awareness. The event has evolved to become not just a success, but also a respected tradition that will continue beyond her time with the team and BSU

For more information on the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, follow the league at WCHA.com and on its social platforms:  X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.