UMD Bulldogs "ALLETE" Moments: Community

Throughout this year, UMD Athletics is partnering with Minnesota Power, ALLETE to highlight the Bulldogs accomplishments in the 3 C's: Classroom, Competition, Community.

University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey graduate forward Clara Van Wieren was named a finalist for the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup Thursday, an award that honors athletes who embody the highest standards of character, teamwork, and citizenship.

Van Wieren is one of six finalists and one of three women that has been invited to an awards ceremony on April 25 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.


In 2004, John Wooden gave Athletes for a Better World permission to use his name for the annual award. The Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup is presented to six distinguished athletes – one male and one female high school, one male and one female collegiate, and one male and one female professional – who have made the greatest difference in the lives of others. The recipients are athletes of excellence both on and off the field, role models both as performers and persons. It is unique because it is open to all athletes in all sports. 


The native of Okemos, Mich. and 2024-25 Hockey Humanitarian nominee, Van Wieren a team captain, is currently pursuing a Professional Studies master degree after she earned a Bachelor of Arts in both Political Science and Philosophy last May as a University Honors Program honoree, and is more than the No. 6 Bulldogs current leading scorer. The graduate forward is a leader both on and off the ice, and is the definition of a well-rounded student athlete who also entirely embodies being a devoted member of the community and the value of serving others. With an eye on her masters degree and a full Division I women's hockey schedule, including a grueling fall semester of travel, Van Wieren has still made it a priority to give back to the community by using her leadership positions as both the president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and the co-president of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. Both organizations, with the leadership  of Van Wieren, embarked on ambitious set of initiatives and brought them to reality over the past year.


Already the women's hockey team's volunteer coordinator this year, which has entailed organizing a inaugural week-long team volunteer event, and resulted in over 150  hours of community service at various local nonprofit organizations, including: Chum, 7 Star Ranch leadership program for veterans, youth, and first responders; the Duluth Children's Museum renovation project, and; Park Point Beach clean-up and restoration work, as well as coordinating coaching opportunities for players to connect with greater-Duluth area youth hockey teams and special needs hockey programs. 

But Van Wieren's passion for helping others shines brightest through the initiatives she helped and created through her work with SAAC and DEI, and both her biggest initiatives were the direct result of a need Clara observed in the Duluth community.


The SAAC initiative partnered with Food Forward and was born out of an honors class that Clara had a few years ago called Childhood Brain Development. The class connected students with the "First Ladies of the Hillside", a group in Duluth, Minn. that is made up of mostly single mothers who have been homeless or living near the poverty line, and attended the class with the UMD students and encouraged them to interact. 

Van Wieren led SAAC to partner with Food Forward, a non-profit that works with 36 local families to create meals weekly for low income families. Besides volunteering with Food Forward, UMD's SAAC group, lead by Van Wieren, bought gifts for the families and items they might not buy for themselves, created gift bags, and then they were passed out with the weekly meals. 

DEI's biggest initiative is in its third year, another program Van Wieren helped create,  works with the local Duluth community for one of the biggest clothing drives that directly benefits the local schools in the areas that need children's clothing the most.The clothing drive began on Oct. 31, and the DEI group placed boxes at all home events for a month and half, encouraging people and families to donate gently used or new clothes for any age child. DEI also partnered with Minnesota Power to buy new clothing for the drive, and this year, DEI had so many bags of clothing after the group separates them out by size and item that they were able to expand the amount of Duluth schools that received bags of clothing for their closet programs.

While Van Wieren has helped turn a lot of community attention to her two biggest initiatives, there is no question that her community involvement extends far past those. A big believer in the mission of DEI and its message of inclusion (you'll here that same message from her in the locker room), Van Wieren has helped implement the NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign at UMD, facilitated group conversations with student-athletes and university administrators, and co-facilitated The Loyola Project Movie Night, an event that focused on promoting anti-racism in athletics and hosted over 200 participants.

For more on the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup, click here.
 

About Minnesota Power, ALLETE:

Our bold vision centers on our commitment to climate, customers and communities. We're a clean-energy leader under our EnergyForward strategy, already delivering 50% renewable energy ahead of all other Minnesota utilities. Now we're doubling down on that with a vision to deliver 100% carbon-free energy to customers reliably and affordably by 2050. Learn more at: https://www.mnpower.com/CarbonFreeEnergyVision