As sports fans acknowledge and celebrate National Girls & Women in Sports Day, the PWHL is celebrating its own massive growth of grassroots hockey programming across the league, which expects to reach more than 20,000 participants over the 2025-26 season.
Major highlights of the PWHL's efforts include the PWHL Mentorship Program for girls in hockey, which began with a kick off event at the 2025 PWHL Draft and launched formally in December in all eight PWHL markets, supporting 120 8th-9th grade girls. The progam is supported by founding partner Kyndryl and in collaboration with Strong Girls United.
Through the league's partnership with the Grindstone Award Foundation, the PWHL donated $5 per doll sold from Barbie x Tim Hortons x PWHL sales on its website and at participating Tim Hortons locations. Grindstone Award Foundation uses these funds to provide grants that help girls play hockey.
Additionally, the PWHL Takeover Tour™ was introduced to spark new fan engagement and expand the PWHL’s reach beyond its home markets, and youth hockey development is one of the primary opportunities to deliver this goal. Through the first 10 of 16 stops on the 2025-26 Tour, the league has hosted 14 grassroots clinics in Takeover Tour markets attended by more than 560 participants, in addition to a youth hockey jamboree in Dallas and a coaches panel in Halifax. During this Tour, teams have also held 12 open practices and 30 autograph sessions to further connect with new fans. When the PWHL season resumes after the Olympic Winter Games, the Takeover Tour will return to Chicago, Denver, Detroit and Edmonton, and make first-time visits to Calgary and Winnipeg to continue the momentum.
Spread across the league's eight markets, the PWHL also has ongoing Ready, Set, Skate programs featuring head-to-toe Bauer gear and eight weeks of instruction, Day Off School Clinics, High-Performance Camps, and Fantasy Camps, most of which are inclusive and open to all, regardless of gender, but are certainly helping to introduce (or bring closer) girls and women to the sport of hockey along the way. What's more an extensive list of PWHL Summer Camp programs will be announced soon.
To stay up to date on all the activations the PWHL has around community activations and grassroots hockey, check out this website: thepwhl.com/en/community/grassroots-hockey.