O'Ree Community Hero Award finalist funds Indigenous girls sports

Ryan Francis said when he was nominated for the 2022 Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award earlier this year for helping to launch the Indigenous Girls Hockey Program Nova Scotia, he "didn't think it would go anywhere."

The 28-year-old from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, certainly didn't expect it to lead to a deeper connection with his father and the launching Aug. 31 of the Genevieve Francis Memorial Fund. Named for Francis' late grandmother, who was killed in a shooting in 1978 when she was 41, the fund's purpose is to provide financial support to sports, recreation and physical activity opportunities for Indigenous women and girls in Atlantic Canada.
Through the Ulnooweg Indigenous Communities Foundation, Francis utilized the $5,000 he received from the NHL for being selected as a finalist for the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award as the initial donation to the fund.
"I think the Indigenous Girls Hockey Program in a way is the heartbeat of an initiative like this," Francis said. "Those girls in the program, and even coaching Team Atlantic at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships for a couple years and those experiences had a really profound impact on me and sort of showed me the importance of creating an environment and trying to use my position to try to support those types of opportunities where Indigenous women and girls can participate in sport in a safe and welcoming way.
"But with this fund, we're really looking at trying to expand what that means and grow it into other areas of sport and recreation."
The inspiration for the fund was sparked by a story Francis' father, Robert, who is Mi'kmaw, shared with him shortly after he was named a Willie O'Ree Community Award finalist in April. A member of Acadia First Nation, Francis was aware his grandmother had died trying to break up a fight between one of his father's brothers and a non-Indigenous youth, but he knew few other details because his father rarely spoke about it.
Seeing his son being honored for his work with Indigenous girls in hockey prompted Robert Francis to recall a conversation he had with his grandmother. Robert loved playing softball and basketball, but his mother would never attend his games.

"She found it really hard to be in the environment, at his games and such, because there was such racism and cruelty directed towards him as being one of the few Mi'kmaw families in the area," Ryan Francis said. "So she'd always ask, 'Is it really worth it? It's really challenging and tough. Why do you put yourself there?' And dad just loved sports and always thought it was worth it.
"In one of those conversations, she said, 'Well, because you love it, I'm going to make the effort to come to your next game."
Sadly, Genevieve Francis was killed two days after making that promise. While Ryan Francis was processing that story and how it impacted his family, he was talking with the Ulnooweg Indigenous Communities Foundation about the best way to use the money he received from the NHL.
"They sort of suggested, 'Why don't you try to do something that has a more long-lasting impact in this area that you're passionate about?' he said. "I started to think about the story that my dad shared, which was sort of a collision of opportunity here and a way to honor and celebrate my grandmother and sort of attach it to the work that I'm passionate about doing and pride myself in doing."
Things moved quickly in the months that followed, culminating in the fund's launch event Wednesday with about 40 friends and family members in attendance. Donations can be made
here
.
A six-person steering committee will oversee the distribution of the fund to deserving groups.
"I'll sort of chair that committee and work with my family to ensure that the fund meets the standards and the spirit of the fund and my grandmother," Francis said.
The fund has helped Francis form a bond with a grandmother he never knew. For his father, it has provided a purpose and promising epilogue to the tragic story of his mother's death.
"Something he shared that really stuck with me was that he never wanted his mother's death to be meaningless," Ryan Francis said. "Not that it was up until this point because of obviously all the incredible gifts that she gave me and my dad and our other family members in the 40-plus years she had with us.
"But for him, I think, after many years of pain … through the whole process it allowed him to open up that conversation even more and lean into that story and understand it and understand our family history and why we're here, and especially for me, understanding why I'm doing what I am today.
"So for him, this was a way to give meaning to her death in a really powerful way."