Awards and Honours
In addition to the titles captured by her team on the ice, Schmirler has been recognized in several different ways off the ice as well. In 2000, Schmirler was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, becoming the first posthumous recipient. Along with the other members of her rink, she had been previously awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Regina. In the fall of 2000, Schmirler was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. Schmirler and her team were inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame on two separate occasions, once in 1997 for winning three World Curling Championships and once in 2001 for winning the gold medal at the Olympics. At the annual Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the top player in the playoff round is awarded the Sandra Schmirler Most Valuable Player Award.
After her death, the city of Regina honoured Schmirler in several ways. The South East Leisure Centre where she used to work was renamed the "Sandra Schmirler Leisure Centre," and the road leading up to the Callie Curling Club, where her team curled out of, was renamed "Sandra Schmirler Way." Schmirler's hometown of Biggar also honoured her memory with the construction of "The Sandra Schmirler Olympic Gold Park."
Scott Paper created the Sandra Schmirler Foundation in January 2001, with the assistance of the Canadian Curling Association and Scott Paper Limited. The foundation raises funds to help care for babies in crisis through direct donations to benefit neonatal care across Canada. In the charity's first four years of existence donations were made to the Children's Miracle Network, Canadian Cystic Fybrosis Foundation and Canadian Ronald McDonald Houses. After altering the charity's mission to focus on neonatal care, donations have been made directly to hospitals in Halifax, Regina, London, Lethbridge, Hamilton and Victoria.
On January 7, 2009, Sandra was named the winner of the 2009 World Curling Freytag Award (later incorporated into the WCF Hall of Fame). The award, named after American Elmer Freytag, who founded the World Curling Federation, honours curlers for championship play, sportsmanship, character and extraordinary achievement. Her husband and daughters accepted the award on her behalf at the 2009 World Men's Curling Championship.
Read more about this topic: Sandra Schmirler
Famous quotes containing the word honours:
“Come hither, all ye empty things,
Ye bubbles rais’d by breath of Kings;
Who float upon the tide of state,
Come hither, and behold your fate.
Let pride be taught by this rebuke,
How very mean a thing’s a Duke;
From all his ill-got honours flung,
Turn’d to that dirt from whence he sprung.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)