Thunder Bay's Kendra Fortin named as 2025 Hockey Humanitarian Award finalist

Organ donation is a very personal cause for Thunder Bay-born hockey player Kendra Fortin.

"My dad was diagnosed, when I was nine years old, with end-stage kidney failure," says Fortin, who plays for the Bemidji State University Beavers women's hockey team. "I wasn't really too familiar with what that meant."

"But as he became older and my dad got sicker, I obviously was a pretty curious little girl, so I researched a little bit," she said. "I would go to all the appointments with him. And then when I was around 13, I ended up setting up all of his personal dialysis treatments at home for him just to kind of take the load off."

"I really enjoyed doing that. I didn't enjoy what it did to our family and what it was doing to my dad, but I really enjoyed helping people."

In 2020, Fortin launched the Kidney for Cory campaign to find a donor for her father.

"It was just to truly raise awareness for organ donation," she said. "Not only for kidneys, what my dad needed, but also for other families that have other organs that need a transplant."

"It kind of evolved into this thing in Thunder Bay. It went throughout the different provinces throughout the world. So that was amazing to see."

And advocacy is something Fortin brought with her to Bemidji State; in fact, her off-ice work to raise awareness of the importance of being an organ donor has led to Fortin being named as a finalist for the 2025 Hockey Humanitarian Award.

The award, which is presented by the Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation, "is meant to be seen as a true measure of a person's worth, not just as an athlete, but as someone who embodies those values that merit our recognition," the foundation's website states.

In Fortin's case, her work includes creating informational pamphlets, t-shirts and donor bracelets, and organizing an Organ Donation Awareness weekend at Bemidji men's and women's hockey games each year.

"Obviously it's amazing," Fortin said of her being named a finalist. "It all comes down to the community that I chose."

"It's not just about me, it's not about my family. It's about the bigger-picture of organ donation awareness and my team, the other athletes on campus, the administration, the faculty," she said. "Everyone put in so many pieces to help this be so successful and to get the word out."

Work is 'pretty special'

Bemidji State women's hockey head coach Amber Fryklund said she wasn't surprised to find out Fortin was a finalist for the award.

"To be a top five finalist for that award is pretty incredible," Fryklund said. "You read about the other finalists, and the work that other student athletes are doing in their communities and across the world is pretty unique."

"To have someone like Kendra in our program doing the work that she's doing is pretty special," she said. "So I'm not surprised that she's the finalist. I'm really happy for her."

"She's put in all the work, all throughout the season with her teammates, she's taking the initiative and it's really, really neat to see her teammates support her and just how passionate she is about this."

Back to Thunder Bay

Fortin will be returning to her hometown after graduating from Bemidji; she's taken a job at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre's labour and delivery department.

And she plans to continue her advocacy, as well.

"I will never forget the day my dad got his transplant and how our family was just changed forever," Fortin said. "Obviously it's up to the person, but it really does save not only that person's life, but it rejuvenates families."

"People continue to be thankful for that donor forever," she said. "I will never not wake up every morning and thank my dad's donor."

"It's an amazing gift that isn't as common as I would like it to be. But yeah, definitely consider being a donor."

The winner of the 2025 Hockey Humanitarian Award will be announced on April 11, as part of the NCAA Men's Frozen Four weekend in St. Louis.