The winner of the 2023 Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award will be announced at the NHL Awards show on Monday in Nashville

Karen Ota-O’Brien has helped bring hockey to countless women across the state of Florida.

She moved to the Sunshine State in 1990, with plans to return to British Columbia after a few months to continue her job as a veterinarian technician.

Ota-O’Brien came from a small ranching and logging community called 100 Mile House, which has a population of around 2,000.

To say she has come a long way to become a Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award nominee would be an understatement.

“When the NHL called to tell me, I cried,” Ota-O’Brien told THN. “I would never have dreamed that I'd be on NHL.com in a million years, or that I would start a hockey program here, at the complete opposite side of North America.”

Ota-O’Brien admitted she had never even played ice hockey until she came to South Florida.

It’s been quite a progression since.

Falling in love with the game of hockey is something that most people reading this story can probably relate to.

For Ota-O’Brien, it led to her founding the South Florida Women's Hockey Program, the Lucky Pucks Hockey Club and Girls Night Out League.

She is also the co-founder, and current President, of the Florida Women's Hockey League (FWHL), which currently has over 350 participants spanning 14 teams across Florida.

It was due to many of those lives that she changed that Ota-O’Brien was nominated in the first place.

“It is a thankless, unpaid volunteer job that I have done for over 26 years, and to hear how my nomination came about, with my teammates recognizing the work I do and nominating me, it was touching to say the least,” she said.

As amazing as winning this award would be, the reward for Ota-O’Brien comes from the people she has impacted over the years.

“Seeing how the young gals that started playing in my Girls Night Out program as early as 11 or 12 years old and watching them go through college, some with hockey scholarships, and now as young women come back to KO's Hockey nest to still play with us is so special, and so worthwhile,” she said.

Being open and inclusive to women of all ages and backgrounds is a big part of the program.

Everyone feeling welcome in a safe atmosphere is as important as the hockey itself.

“I’m a product of a father that was put in a Japanese Internment camp with his family as a young child in BC, and my mom was a child that was placed in the Kamloops, BC First Nations residential school, the same one mentioned in the 60 Minutes piece,” she said. “I understand the ugliness of prejudice.”

Ota-O’Brien said she has seen all kinds of woman lace up their skates over the years, including moms in their 40s and 50s taking up the game for the first time.

“To provide a safe and fun atmosphere for them too, it's just proof never too late to start playing ice hockey,” she said.

Over the past several decades, Ota-O’Brien has created something even she is shocked to see all these years later.

Her nomination for the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award is a testament to all her hard work and dedication, but she is quick to bring attention to all those who have been there with her along the way.

“It's truly an honor to be recognized along with the other NHL nominations,” she said. “But I have to say, although I have been at the helm of the women's Florida program since the 1990s, I have had a lot of support and help from my army of hockey women, both in South Florida and around the state. Our women’s program here in Florida would not be as successful as we have without all the help I have had. I have a huge support system.

“I hope that this experience will give our little organization, Lucky Pucks and the FWHL more exposure so we can further our growth, not only with the women's hockey program, but to the girls program,” she continued. “I'd like to broaden our work and reach out to the underserved communities as well. Seeing the other finalists and past winners of this incredible award and what they have done in their communities, it gave me inspiration to work on other aspects to further the growth of hockey here in Florida, the place that I call home.”

The winner of the 2023 Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award will be announced Monday night during the NHL Awards show in Nashville. 

First awarded in 2017-18, the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award is presented annually “to an individual who – through the game of hockey – has positively impacted his or her community, culture or society.”

Watch the NHL's Community Hero video on Ota-O'Brien below: