Joy Drop: Sports, academics collide with scholarship created by Raptors' Chris Boucher

Hi, friends! Another stellar week has flown by and I want to share a few wonderful and deeply joyous things with you.

Shout-out to Chris Boucher of the Toronto Raptors who created a scholarship at Toronto Metropolitan University. He named it SlimmDuck Scholarship for students of Caribbean descent in the Spanning the Gaps program. It's a program that supports access to post-secondary education for adults and young people who haven't experienced it. I always get excited about the collision of sports and academics.

The IIHF Women's World hockey championships are underway in Brampton, Ontario! The tournament has not been hosted in Canada for a few years. It took place in Calgary in  2021 but was closed to spectators and most of the press. It is the first time since 2000 that it is being hosted in the Greater Toronto Area. And with the appropriate amount of fanfare and excitement.

Canada played its opening game against Switzerland and won 4-0. We expect this to be a successful tournament for Canada but anything can happen on the ice. This video on the tournament is a great look into women's hockey and the vision of inclusion, success and legacy.

One of the advantages to having it hosted in Canada is that our own team can have families and community come and watch in-person. One of the cutest spectators was Rory, Natalie Spooner's infant son. Spooner scored the first goal of the game with Rory in the stands. I love Mamas in the highest echelon of competition. We know it takes a village and also a hockey team!

Another fantastic spectator cheering on Team Canada was Sarah Nurse's Gramma Marge. We absolutely love to see it. I came across this photo in Nurse's Instagram story and thought it was adorable. It's such a joy to see that the families of our star players can watch these women play.

The weather is getting more beautiful and the call of Spring means Sakura! Sakura is the Japanese term for cherry blossom trees. BLOG T.O. reported that the Cherry Blossoms may bloom much earlier this year. All the rain and temperatures in the double digits in the GTA has been experiencing may certainly help this process along.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, the annual Cherry Blossom Festival has begun and runs from April 1 - April 23. There are numerous intra-community arts activities in the city that highlight the wondrous blooms. There are a few cities where the Cherry Blossom trees are a major attraction. A woman named Stephanie who is a blogger from Ontario writes This Lady's Travel Blog. She wrote a delightful post about where exactly to find Cherry Blossom trees in Canada.

One of the most joyous things this week was the NCAA women's basketball finals and the win from Louisiana State University. Within that win is the incredible story of Flau'jae Johnson. She is multi-talented not only as a NCAA Champion but also as a rapper. In fact, when LSU won the championship, they played her song. In an excellent piece of news, Lil Wayne will be collaborating with this superstar on a music project. Perfect way to cap off a historic win for this player.

I hope you enjoy the long weekend with friends, family and communities.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates!