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2005-2006 HUMANITARIAN AWARD WINNER
Princeton University
Eric Leroux Named 2006 Hockey Humanitarian
Princeton Senior Goaltender Leads Both On And Off Of The Ice
Milwaukee, Wisc. – The Hockey Humanitarian Foundation today announced that Princeton senior goaltender Eric Leroux is the recipient of the 2006 Hockey Humanitarian Award.
On the ice Leroux has been a standout for the Tigers and this year was named first team All-Ivy. The London, Ontario native broke the Princeton save percentage record this season and for the third time was named to the ECAC all-academic team.
It is off of the ice however where Leroux has left the mark that has earned him the 11th annual Hockey Humanitarian Award. Last summer Leroux spent 10 weeks in Kenya working with the Foundation for Sustainable Development. The previous summer he spent six weeks in Ecuador working in a community malaria clinic. Closer to home at Princeton, he founded a team initiative named PUCK (Providing Underprivileged Communities and Kids) and also the Princeton World Health Initiative.
“Eric is an exceptional human being and each and every day around him is amazing,” says Princeton Head Coach Guy Gadowsky. “He is a leader on our team both on and off of the ice and he truly epitomizes what the Hockey Humanitarian Award symbolizes.”
In addition to his trip to Kenya as an HIV counselor living in a rural village in a mud hut with no running water, and also serving in a malaria clinic in Ecuador where on weekends he helped build a rehabilitation clinic from Amazon Jungle vegetation, Leroux has also touched lives in and around the Hobey Baker Rink.
Leroux is a Big Brother to a Princeton, New Jersey teen and also tutors adults at the Hutton House Center for Disabled Adults. He is the founder of PUCK (Providing Underprivileged Communities and Kids), a team initiative to donate old hockey equipment to youth hockey programs which last year was successful in contributing more than $5,000 worth of equipment to the Baltimore Area Youth Hockey Association.
Upon his return from Ecuador he founded the Princeton World Health Initiative which recovers unused medical supplies from area hospitals and pharmaceutical companies and distributes them to hospitals in developing nations. He is also involved with the Society for Orphans with AIDS Network.
“A lot can be done in this world and a little can go a long way,” says Leroux. “Everyone in this world deserves a chance and circumstance is not a fair way to provide opportunity. I think that it’s up to all of us to recognize that everyone deserves the same opportunity: the infants suffering from malnutrition and children who are HIV infected and dying in Third World Countries; and also the person just around the corner in your everyday life, it’s up to all of us to make a difference.”
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