DULUTH — Minnesota Duluth fifth-year senior forward and co-captain Clara Van Wieren is one of 14 nominees for the 2024-25 Hockey Humanitarian Award.
The Hockey Humanitarian Award is an all-gender, all-division award in college hockey that goes to the sport’s “finest citizen,” as determined by the Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation.
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A former teammate of Van Wieren’s, Gabbie Hughes, became the first Bulldog to win the award in 2022-23 for work bringing awareness to the issue of mental health among athletes by co-founding Sophie’s Squad.
Van Wieren is president of UMD’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and co-president of the university’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. She is the volunteer coordinator for the UMD women’s hockey program, helping the team work with a variety of nonprofits in the Duluth area, including CHUM, the 7 Star Ranch leadership program for veterans, youth and first responders, and the Duluth Children's Museum.
She’s helped with the cleanup and restoration of Park Point Beach and connected her teammates with youth hockey teams in the region, and special needs hockey programs.
Through SAAC and DEI, she’s worked with Food Forward Duluth and a clothing drive that begins around Halloween and runs through the holiday season.
Three Bulldogs have been nominated for the Hockey Humanitarian Award in the last four years, with Hughes being nominated twice in 2022 and 2023. Men’s goaltender Ben Patt was also nominated in 2022. The men’s and women’s programs have had eight total nominees since the award began in 1996. Only Hughes in 2022 and 2023, and Zoe Hickel in 2014-15 have been named finalists.
Finalists for 2025 will be announced in February and this year’s award will be presented on April 11 during the 2025 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four in St. Louis.
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