Sunday, November 21, 2010

Yale Women Open Locker Room, Hearts for Giana Cardonita

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Giana Cardonita in front of Mandi Schwartz's locker"How much do you girls miss her?"

Late last Friday evening Giana Cardonita, a 9-year-old from Guilford, Conn., who was recently "adopted" by the Yale women's hockey team, stood inside the Bulldog locker room. Moments earlier Yale had lost at home to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 4-1, to move to 0-5-2 on the season. Now the Bulldogs rustled up some smiles to wear and formed a hockey-stick archway through which their newest teammate, Cardonita, was to march. Awaiting her at the end of this brief parade was both a locker and a jersey, the latter of which fit like a nightgown, with Cardonita's name on them.

"How much do you girls miss her?"

Cardonita was staring at, transfixed by, actually, the locker of Mandi Schwartz. The Bulldog forward, whose No. 17 jersey hangs in her locker, is 3,000 miles away in Seattle. Schwartz has not been on campus since last April. She is recovering from her second bout with acute myeloid leukemia, a battle that has seen her undergo numerous chemotherapy treatments as well as a stem-cell transplant since it was first diagnosed on December 7, 2008.

"How much do you girls miss her?" asked Cardonita.

"A lot," her new family answered in unison.

 

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Source: http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2010/11/17/yale-women-turn-ice-hockey-into-nice-hockey-for-giana-mandi/

Tamala Jones Tami Donaldson Tamie Sheffield

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