By Annika Scurfield
A few years ago, Toronto Sceptres forward and Grindstone Ambassador Emma Woods was searching for a meaningful way to give back to the sport that shaped her life. She didn’t have a specific organization in mind—only a strong desire to help more kids access hockey.
Not long after, during an Air Canada flight, Woods was talking to a woman sitting next to her, who shared that she knew the former president of the Grindstone Award Foundation. That conversation led to a connection with Grindstone’s Vice President, Jehan Jiwa, and soon after, Woods officially came on board as an ambassador.
Reflecting on this time, Woods said, “I just thought, this is so aligned with what I’ve been thinking about. I’ve been wanting to be a part of something like this. It was kind of just luck of the draw the way it kind of came about. But I think it was meant to be.”
Since joining Grindstone as an ambassador in 2024, Woods has supported the charity by donating proceeds from her summer hockey camp held annually in Creston, BC back to Grindstone. In addition, she also ran a social media campaign aimed at raising awareness for the charity, where her followers helped Woods reach her goal of $5000 in funds. She continues to champion the cause to her networks and even invited members of the Grindstone team to a Toronto Sceptres practice in Vancouver earlier this year.
How Her Roots Shape Her Mission
Originally from Burford, Ontario—a rural town of just 1,500—Woods was raised on a dairy farm with her three siblings. She spent her early years playing hockey alongside her twin brother and younger brother and played on boys’ teams until her early teens.
Woods said growing up in a small, tight-knit community helped make hockey more accessible for her and her siblings. “We were fortunate to grow up in a small town, a small community where it didn’t cost so much for your kids to play. And, you know, there wasn’t as much travel,” she said. “If I didn’t grow up where I did in the time that I did, I don’t know if my family would have been able to put us in hockey.”
Now based in Toronto, Woods has seen just how much the financial landscape of youth hockey has shifted.
“I just see the way these teams are put together now at the youth levels and how much they have to travel and how much the fees are, and it just seems so unattainable. I knew if I was ever in that position when I was growing up, I don’t know if I would have been able to put on skates.” said Woods.
The financial barriers of hockey not only limit access, but also potential she explained, adding, “Hockey really is such a privileged sport, you know, maybe you grow up in a small town or you grow up somewhere you’re able to afford the fees for the team. But that caps off at a lower level… skill development, power skating, hockey camps, offseason training —all of these things cost money.”
That’s part of why Woods said Grindstone’s work is so important. “There’s gonna be young girls who believe in themselves, and then they have these dreams, and they have these goals and ambitions, and how do we get them there if they’re not able to afford it? With Grindstone, we do what we can to get them in the game.”
Woods said she considers herself lucky—not just to have played professionally, but to have found a lifelong community through sport. “Sports have been in my life since I can remember, I was five years old when I started playing hockey in Creston, BC. They’ve been my whole life. It’s given me friends. It’s given me family. I think about mental health, I think it’s so good for kids to just do something that is good for their mental health and that gets them out of the house or gets them off their phone, whatever it is.”
Giving back through Grindstone, she said, feels like a full circle moment. “If I can have a small impact on a young girl who maybe isn’t as lucky as I was, that’s what makes this so important to me.”
To the young girls benefiting from Grindstone’s support, Woods offered a message of encouragement:
“Embrace the game, embrace the community that the game of hockey gives you. Work hard, be a good teammate. And most importantly, just have fun.”
