Through the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, Roque reached out to HINJ earlier this season and indicated she wanted to become more personally involved with the program with an eye toward helping grow the sport among girls and people of color.
HINJ, an affiliate of the NHL’s Hockey is for Everyone initiative, is a nonprofit organization founded in 2003 and provides a year-round hockey program for socioeconomically disadvantaged and underserved youth in the area at no cost in the Newark, Englewood and Jersey City, New Jersey, areas, each having a sizable Hispanic population.
About 758 boys and girls are in the program this season, 415 of whom live in Newark, said Tera Hofmann, HINJ’s director of hockey operations and girls programming. She said about 39 percent of the girls registered in Newark speak English as a second language, 61 percent come from households earning less than $50,000 a year and 23 percent are from families earning less than $20,000 a year.
“It’s important, honestly, to give back to those communities,” Roque said. “I think hockey has so much more room to grow. It’s obviously a predominantly white sport and I think it’s huge to make it have access for everyone. I love their (HINJ) vision. They don’t charge for their hockey. They keep the ice free. The way they’re running their program, I thought, was really amazing. I was just happy to sometimes be a part of it, when I can stop it and say ‘Hi’ to the kids. It’s great for me too. I get to go there, and the kids are always so happy, and they really just love the sport. I’m just happy to be a part of it.”
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