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University of Alaska-Fairbanks
A native of Medicine Hat, AB, Reinheller, who is in his fourth year with the UAF Nanooks, continues to show a strong commitment to his team and community wherever he's lived or played.
For the past seven years, he has traveled to Mexico to help build homes for the homeless. When not on a construction site, he has spent time caring for and playing with the Mexican children. Also, for the past eight years, he has volunteered his time at the Eagles' Nest Ranch summer camp for kids.
A letter, that accompanied Reinheller's nomination two years ago, read:
"My name is...and I have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. I am 10 years old and in grade five. Ryan is nice to me. At camp, he carries me when I get tired. He took me to an Edmonton Oilers hockey game for a treat, and he slept beside my bed on the floor that night because I was scared without my mom there. He loves me...and I love him...I want to be like Ryan when I grow up."
From 1995 to 1997, Reinheller played for the Penticton Panthers Junior A hockey team. While each player is expected to do one public appearance per month, he did one a week. This consisted of alternately going to one of the six elementary or junior high schools or going to one of the senior rest homes or going to the home of a senior to perform a task the person was incapable of doing. On the ice for the Panthers, he was the BCJHL rookie scoring leader in 1995-96 and the Rookie of the Year.
The year before, while playing in the International Junior Hockey League, he was the Rookie of the Year, the leading scorer and received the Most Gentlemanly Player, while, in 1993-94, for the Medicine Hat Midget AAA Tigers, he was voted the Most Dedicated Player both on and off the ice.
Ryan began his involvement with others when he was aged 16. After his trip to Mexico to build homes for the homeless, he saw a commercial about adopting a child through World Vision. He picked up a phone and signed up to sponsor a child. Today, Ryan and that child, Tikher Asefa from Kenya still maintain a monthly contact. What’s more, Reinheller has convinced his Nanook teammates to sponsor a child of their own with the intent of passing the commitment down to each class.
He also has his UAF teammates involved with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program as well as homeless shelters in Fairbanks.
Reinheller has created such an impact on the Fairbanks community that at this year’s annual hockey awards banquet there will be a new award established in his name - "The Ryan Reinheller Humanitarian Award" which will be given annual to the person on the team who closely matches Ryan’s effort.
The two-time assistant captain of the Nanooks, he was voted his team’s Most Improved Second Year Player Award as a sophomore, while he was the Unsung Hero Award winner last year.
"I am proud to have such an outstanding, dedicated, giving individual as a student at UAF," wrote Marshall L. Lind, chancellor of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "He touches individuals in positive ways every day,"
UAF head coaches Guy Gadowsky said of Reinheller, who has a 2.72 grade point average in the business major. "He is an inspiration to the individuals around him, the coach included, to take an active part in making the Fairbanks community a better place to live."
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