Kristen Cameron

Kristen Cameron is a women's ice hockey player from Prince Edward Island. While serving as an assistant coach for the Mercyhurst Lakers women's ice hockey program, she was involved in an accident on September 12, 2010 that resulted in a spinal cord injury.

Playing career
Cameron moved from P.E.I. to New Hampshire at the age of 17 to attend a prep school.

NCAA Div. III
In the autumn of 2004, Cameron joined Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. While there, she was a three-time All-NESCAC selection and was honored as a 2005-06 First Team Division III All-American. In her sophomore season (2005-06), she registered 12 goals and 20 assists, to rank third in team scoring with 32 points. Cameron led the club with three game-winning goals and four power play tallies. Her 44 penalty minutes also led the team. After two seasons, she accumulated 69 career points in just 53 games. In conference play, she was Bowdoin’s leading scorer, leading the team with 25 points in NESCAC contests. She helped Bowdoin finish as runners-up in the 2005-06 New England Small College Athletic Conference Tournament with a record of 17-9-1.

Coaching career
Upon graduation, she joined the Castleton State College (in Castleton, Vermont) coaching staff in 2008, as an assistant coach. One year later, she joined Michael Sisti’s coaching staff at Mercyhurst College in 2009, an NCAA Division I women’s hockey program. While serving on the Castleton State Spartans coaching staff, she attended several seminars on coaching and leadership, including the NCAA Women’s Leadership Symposium and the NESCAC Coaching Symposium.

Awards and honors

 * NESCAC Rookie of the Year (2005)
 * Three-time All-NESCAC selection
 * 2005-06 First Team Division III All-American
 * 2008 Women’s Hockey Founder’s Award for perseverance

Accident
On September 12, 2010, Cameron sustained a serious spinal cord injury which was given immediate medical care at Hamot Medical Center in Erie, Pennsylvania. She was hit by a drunk motorist driving a 1979 Chevrolet Caprice and thrown 15 metres off her bicycle. As a result, Kristen sustained a serious spinal cord injury, breaking her neck at the C6 and C7 vertebras, and leaving her paralyzed from the chest down, with limited mobility in her upper body. After two weeks in hospital in Erie, Kristen was transferred to St. Mike's Hospital in Toronto on September 26, 2010.

Weeks later, she underwent rehabilitation at the Lyndhurst Centre in Toronto to improve her mobility. In May 2011, the driver who struck Kristen, Allen Peters, was sentenced to three to six years. He pleaded guilty to the second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault while driving under the influence in the incident.

Tributes
The UPEI Panthers men's hockey program played a benefit game against the UPEI alumni on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at MacLauchlan Arena. Proceeds from the Kristen Cameron Benefit Hockey went to assist her in her recovery from her spinal cord injury. Her father Brian, uncles Dave and Rick, and cousin Connor, all played hockey for the Panthers. The benefit hockey game was conceived by Panthers captain Thomas Waugh and teammate Kris MacDonald. Waugh played for the St. Mike's Majors of the Ontario Hockey League with Connor Cameron and was coached by Connor's father, Dave.

Her story of recovery was the subject of a Canadian Broadcasting Company feature produced for their 2012 Hockey Day in Canada broadcast on February 11, 2012.

During the 2010–11 Mercyhurst Lakers women's ice hockey season, the Lakers wore a patch on their jerseys with the initials K.C 10-11. There were also fundraisers in the American communities where Kristen played hockey and coached. Emileigh Mercer (a former Bowdoin field hockey goaltender) was responsible for two fundraising events involving former Bowdoin atheltes, including a fundraiser for Cameron. The fundraiser was the 1st Annual Jingle Bell Benefit for Kristen Cameron, was hosted on Saturday, December 18 at The Four's in Boston.

She was invited to drop the puck at the Opening Ceremonies at the George Trainor Minor Hockey Tournament in Charlottetown in December, 2011. It was the first time she was back on the ice since her accident in September 2010. In the Cameron family's home community of Kinkora, there was Kristen Cameron Week. Kinkora residents recently formed a Kristen Cameron Committee which led to the organization of an awareness week. In addition, a Kristen Cameron Benefit was held at the Kanata Club in Kinkora on November 27, 2010,. to raise funds. Of note, the cost of her wheelchair was $30,000. Kinkora Regional High School and Somerset Elementary had an awareness week, where students learned about what happened to Cameron. Her story of recovery was the subject of a Canadian Broadcasting Company feature produced for their 2012 Hockey Day in Canada broadcast on February 11, 2012.

Personal
She graduated from Bowdoin College in 2008 with a degree in Education. At Mercyhurst College, she was working towards a Master’s of Science in Organizational Leadership. She has been able to travel to hockey and football games in the United States, and even tried gliding through a program called "Freedom Wings", designed for people with disabilities. The first hockey game she saw since her rehabilitation began involved the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies host the Abbotsford Heat.

Her father, Brian Cameron, served as president of Hockey PEI from 1993-95. In addition, he has coached in the Charlottetown Minor Hockey Association. Her mother, Joanne, was an active volunteer in the minor hockey community. Her uncle, Charlie Cameron went onto play at the University of New Brunswick. In addition, he captured the world pond hockey title on two occasions, and he is also a corporal with the Fredericton police.

Another uncle, Dave Cameron was part of Hockey Canada’s coaching staff at the 2011 IIHF World Junior Championships, held in Buffalo, N.Y. With the help of her family, she visited HSBC Arena to see her uncle coach at the 2011 World Juniors. She witnessed Canada lose to Sweden in a shootout by a 6-5 final score. He was also a former NHL player, with the Colorado Rockies and New Jersey Devils. Currently, he is working as an assistant with the Ottawa Senators.