O'Ree finalist spotlight: Saroya Tinker

The Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award is given to an individual who, through hockey, has positively impacted his or her community culture or society. The award honors O'Ree, the former NHL forward who became the first Black player to play in the NHL on Jan. 18, 1958, and has spent more than two decades as the NHL's diversity ambassador. The winner is determined by a fan vote, which is from April 3-16, as well as a judging panel with weighted votes from Willie O'Ree, the NHL and, for the award in Canada, representatives from Hyundai. New this year, there will be a winner from the United States and one from Canada. Today, a look at one of three Canada finalists, Saroya Tinker.

Saroya Tinker's love for hockey is fueled by her desire to get more Black girls into the sport.

"I don't think I would be involved in the sport if it weren't for them," Tinker said. "I play for the little Black girls. I play to be a piece of representation to let them know that they can do it."

The 25-year-old defenseman for Toronto Six of the Premier Hockey Federation is doing all she can to help them.

Tinker co-founded Black Girl Hockey Club Canada in November 2022 and is its executive director. The organization is a chapter of the Black Girl Hockey Club, a United States nonprofit group founded by Renee Hess in 2018 to inspire and sustain passion for hockey within the Black community, specifically among Black women, and provide access to the sport through education and scholarship programs.

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Tinker learned about BGHC while playing at Yale University, where she said her enthusiasm for hockey waned from racist comments and attitudes from coaches, opponents, teammates and fans.

"Renee connected and reached out and I started volunteering on the scholarship committee," Tinker said. "I just loved reading the girls' scholarship applications, how many Black girls loved hockey. My first season in the National Women's Hockey League (now the PHF), I originally wanted to raise $5,000 for the scholarship committee for Black Girl Hockey Club U.S. and I ended up raising about $32,000 and we decided to start the Canadian chapter."

Tinker simultaneously has her own mentorship program, "Saroya Strong," which assists BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) girls and women on matters from hockey to mental health. A program that started out with four or five mentees has grown to nearly 125 across North America.

"About 70 live in the greater Toronto area," Tinker said. "With that, we operate virtually, whether it's meeting with me on Zoom or me actually going out and taking them to dinner to discuss what they are looking forward to in their careers or the challenges that they are facing."

The Hockey News listed Tinker among its top 20 social change advocates in hockey in its Money & Power issue.

"Folks don't even really know all that she has done behind the scenes to uplift her mentees, our scholarship awardees," Hess said. "When we came to this idea of launching Black Girl Hockey Club Canada, Saroya wanted to have both hands on the reins because this is how much this means to her."

Tinker did it all while playing for Toronto this season. She had three points (one goal, two assists) in 24 regular-season games for the Six, who defeated the Minnesota Whitecaps 4-3 in overtime at Mullett Arena, home of the Arizona Coyotes, on Sunday to win the Isobel Cup for the first time.

She's proud to be among a group of Black women who are thriving at elite levels of hockey including 2022 Olympic gold medalist Sarah Nurse, Buffalo Beauts forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis, the NWHL most valuable player in 2020-21, and Ohio State University defenseman Sophie Jaques, winner of the 2023 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the best player in NCAA Division I hockey.

"It's so important for girls to see that other Black women are succeeding in the sport and feel like they're welcomed and have those connections and that community that they can go to when they do experience acts of racism," she said. "Obviously, we're making strides in the right direction, but we are still far from that fully inclusive hockey atmosphere, so it's so important for them to have that physical representation."

Tinker said receiving the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award would help further amplify that message.

"With Willie being the first Black player in the NHL," she said, "it's obviously an honor to potentially receive that award with his name and represent Black women in the sport and show that other Black women can get involved in the community and impact so many little girls."

The winner from Canada will receive the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award presented by Hyundai in Canada. The Canada winner will be announced on Sportsnet during the 2023 Stanley Cup Final and the U.S. winner will be announced at the NHL Awards on June 26 in Nashville. Each winner will receive a $25,000 USD prize, and the four remaining finalists will receive $5,000, to be donated to a charity of their choice.