After extending her passion for hockey to her teammates, this summer Ruggiero will extend her love for sport to children at home and abroad.

From July to the beginning of August, she will travel with former Harvard women’s basketball player Laela Sturdy ’00 and her younger sister, Alexis, to Kimpala, Uganda on a goodwill trip with Right to Play, a Canadian-based NGO founded in 1994 by Norwegian speedskater Johann Olav Koss that uses Olympic athletes to provide humanitarian aid and promote sport in developing countries. Members of the organization include NHL great Wayne Gretzky, NBA star Dikembe Mutumbo, and of course Angela Ruggiero.

An ambassador of the organization for years, she first joined Right to Play four years ago when Nikki Stone, a U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning aerialist, convinced her to sign up.

“My name has been a part of the organization for a few years. I’ve donated stuff, done a couple of events for them, but nothing to this extent,” she says.

“Basically there’s what’s called Sport for Development, or Sports Work Programs, and they go into the communities and teach these kids to have soccer day. And in order to play soccer you have to get immunized for Hepatitis or something like that,” Ruggiero explains. “And they bring in Aids research—they bring in the U.N., the Red Cross—just kind of build communities for these kids—give them something because they really have nothing.”

“It’s human development—working the mind and body. I just think it’s really important for kids,” she says. “For me it meant so much to have sports. For these kids who have nothing, we’re giving them a soccer ball, we’re giving them something to do every day. I thought it was something I definitely wanted to be a part of.”

“Ang is unique in that her drive on the ice is equaled off the ice,” Raimondi says. “She just has an unbelievable ability to bring out the best in everyone.”

Laela Sturdy and Ruggiero wrote the proposal for the trip, and Right to Play loved it. But Ruggiero explains there is still a few hurdles ahead before the trip can move forward.

“We’re in the fundraising stage. We need to raise $20,000 by the day after commencement, June 11. Right now we have about half of it,” she says. “Basically what we need the money for is to travel over there, all of our expenses. Anything we have extra we’re just going to give to them.”

That’s not all. In addition to the trip, Ruggiero and 16-year-old Alexis Sturdy will document their work and then travel to high schools in the U.S., educating teenagers about the program and social justice with a video and scrap book.

There will be no rest for the weary. As soon as she returns, Ruggiero will have exactly one week to hit the ice before the start of the U.S. National training camp. Following camp, Ruggiero returns home to Michigan where she runs a hockey camp for kids. Then it’s back to Boston where she hopes to have a flexible job that allows her to continue to play hockey with her team of post-grad U.S. players who don’t want to go up north to play hockey in the Canadian WNHL.

Staying in the Boston area will allow Ruggiero to make some Harvard hockey games as well.

“I already told the team I’ll be their stalker next year,” she says with a laugh.

WHAT SHE’S THERE 4

High above the far side of the ice at Bright Hockey Center to the right of the American flag hangs the number 4 in honor of Bill Cleary ’56 and for his contribution to Harvard hockey for over six decades.