In August Florida Alliance parents Hunter and Cheryl Brown experienced an unthinkable tragedy – they lost their beautiful 16 y.o. daughter McKenna to suicide. As you can imagine, her teammates, coaches and families were in the process of navigating the shock, confusion, and despair of loosing McKenna when they arrived at our Dawg Daze of Summer event at the end of August.
During such a devastating time, conversations of mental health are important and valuable. We were fortunate to have Premier Hockey Federation player and Metropolitan Riveters Captain Madison Packer join us to help with this conversation. Madison has an empathic ear and a lifetime of hockey experience that our players can relate to. Madison is committed to having hard conversations about mental health after her own struggles and wanted to share her story with our players. You can read her recent interview in the UW Badgers news MyWords where Madison candidly talks about her struggles – https://uwbadgers.com/news/2022/6/13/andy-baggot-mywords-madison-packer.aspx Although Madison is not a mental health professional, she is someone our community of players can identify and connect with.
We appreciate her commitment and generosity in sharing her time with the NGHL athletes.
