Celebrating WISE Women in Sport
On March 6, 2025, Ever Active Schools (EAS) had the opportunity to host WISE, a Women in Sport Event. Our aim was to gather women and gender diverse people making a difference in women and girls’ participation in sport and physical activity and the incredible strength, diversity, knowledge and energy in the room blew us away. It truly was a room full of WISE women.
EAS is a registered charity supporting health and wellbeing for children and youth in schools and communities. We prioritize equity-owed populations, focusing our programs, events and resources on supporting all children and youth, and especially girls, Indigenous and newcomer children and youth, children and youth with disabilities, gender and sexually diverse youth, and children and youth from low income families.
In the 2023-24 school year, just over 10% of our products and services specifically supported girls. One great example is GO! A project focused on closing the gap in girls’ and gender diverse youth participation in sport and physical activity. This work really matters to us.
This event came to be in a way that may not surprise you if you’re at all familiar with our wonderful Executive Director, Brian Torrance. Brian bought access to a room in Peter Lougheed Hall, at the University of Alberta, at a silent auction and then came to our team and said… “Hey! What should we do with this room?”. We considered hosting an EAS team meeting in the space; many of the dynamic women on our team attended WISE. We also considered hosting an Ever Active Schools Board of Directors meeting; all of the incredible women on our board also attended the event. We hadn’t quite landed on an idea and then Brian said, “Hey! I think the silent auction prize might expire soon!”
Just over a year ago, the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) game aired on TV and moved many to tears; for many hockey fans and women’s hockey fans it was the first time we’d seen women’s hockey televised outside of the Olympics. In April 2024, we watched Caitlin Clarke take the sporting world by storm, shattering viewership records with the most-watched women’s basketball game in history, but it was also the most-viewed basketball game of the past five years, outpacing any NBA contest during that period. In 2024, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) broke attendance records, crossed the 2 million mark with a sold out crowd in Portland as fans honoured Christine Sinclair’s retirement from the sport. Also in 2024, we cheered on the Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team, who won the bronze medal at the Paris Paralympic Games, the country’s first-ever Paralympic podium finish in sitting volleyball. We watch Jessica Campbell become the first female coach in NHL history. And we’ve watched a rise in women in sports media, with folks like Meaghan Mikkelson holding a regular spot on Hockey Night in Canada, podcasts like The Gist and The Bits gaining momentum (shout out to The Bits, Edmonton home grown!) and media company TOGETHXR, launching the iconic ‘Everyone Watches Women’s Sports’ line.
In this same timeframe, Canadian Women & Sport, an incredible organization in our sector transforming sport in Canada so girls and women can reach their full potential, launched the Rally Report with the support of Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities. It is a call to reimagine sport so that all girls can play. This report points to real challenges, but it also cites real opportunities and calls on schools to play a key role in advancing sport participation for girls. The report also notes that girls’ interest in sport participation is growing. This work really matters.
And suddenly, we knew exactly what to do with the Peter Lougheed room.
We needed to gather the women and gender diverse folks in Edmonton who are moving the needle on advancing girls’ and women’s participation in sport and physical activity. We wanted to align with International Women’s Day because we want to celebrate women and we want to inspire the women, gender diverse people and allies to continue to drive change in their respective spaces – because this work really matters.
EAS came together with our friends at InMotion Network to collaborate on this event. Our friends at KidSport Edmonton offered to lend a helping hand. And we asked Taryn Barry, of the Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability, to be our honorary chair.
Taryn is a longtime champion of girls and women in sport. She has worked for many different sport organizations in Canada and internationally, including Hockey Canada and the International University Sports Federation. She is also a PhD Candidate in sport management at the University of Alberta. And if you spend enough time on Youtube, you may come across a video of Taryn and myself, starring as Patches and Guba, the U of A’s athletics mascots, in an epic dance off that played at every sporting event in the U of A main gym for more years than we care to remember. Taryn was a crucial piece in supporting EAS in gathering an incredible room.
Also, a special thank you to Flirt Cupcakes for the gift of a sweet treat for guests to take home.
We wanted to ensure that we opened the event in a good way and tended to the spirits of our guests. We were so fortunate to gather in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, Edmonton within Treaty 6 Territory and within the Métis homelands and Métis Nation of Alberta Region 4. Indigenous peoples have a long history of games and sport in this place, which far predates colonization. There are many incredible Indigenous women advancing girls’ participation in sport and physical activity – some of whom were in the room for WISE. We are really blessed to call Amanda Patrick a teammate at Ever Active Schools, who leads Run for Reconciliation every year on July 1 in St. Albert, and won an award for her efforts. Lannie Houle attended, with First Nations Health Consortium, who recently hosted a winter girls golf camp in Edmonton with 22 girls in attendance. And we were very lucky to have Milly Saadeh on our panel, who is part of the core planning team for the Orange Shirt Day – Every Child Matters Run/Walk on September 30 in Edmonton; Anita Cardinal also joined us for WISE. We gratefully acknowledge this land as the traditional territories of many First Nations such as the Nehiyaw (Cree), Denesuliné (Dene), Nakota Sioux (Stoney), Anishinaabe (Saulteaux) and Niitsitapi (Blackfoot).
We were very fortunate to have Milly’s auntie, Maureen Callihoo Ligtvoet, offer a blessing. Maureen is a Cree Mohawk woman from the Michel First Nation, and has lived her entire life in Treaty 6 Territory. Maureen lends her life experience as an indigenous woman and educator to numerous First Nations, Metis, and Inuit committees and organizations. She considers her learning journey within the Indigenous community to be a great honor, and a lifetime endeavor.
We are incredibly grateful to Quinn Phillips, our panel host with the most, who has been a long time supporter of EAS. Years ago, she was an ambassador for our GO! Program. And she is another woman in sport who continues to truly inspire. Quinn expertly stewarded our panel, featuring Ruke Okome, Heidi Peters, Emilea (Milly) Saadeh, Lindsay McAlpine and Kendall Barber. Learn more about these exceptional women on the WISE page.
And just before the panel launched we shared a video story of Marli Rain-Shingoose, an incredible hockey player. We wanted to ensure that we brought youth voice into this space in a meaningful way – as it is at the very core of who we are as an organization. And we had the pleasure of hosting Marli and her mom, Shalanne Rain, in person at WISE.
It was an incredible morning and we are especially grateful to everyone who attended; thank you to each of you who are breaking glass ceilings, paving the way for next generations and truly making a difference in opportunities for girls and women in sport and physical activity. This work really matters and you are leading the way.
Written by Katie Mahon
