A Marine Corps spouse has won this year’s NHL Stick Tap for Service, presented by Navy Federal Credit Union.
Brittney Norman was honored for her work as a billet for players with the IceRays, a North American Hockey League team in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Stick Tap for Service program recognizes the outstanding community service of hockey fans and military members.
Billets are families who invite junior players into their homes to be part of their family during a hockey season. The players come from not only across the United States but around the world.
“They are here competing for college scholarships, but for a chance in the NHL,” Norman said.
Norman’s husband Thane is a lieutenant colonel in the Corps. The couple has two children, a son Caden, 9, and a daughter, Devin, 7. The family relocated to Corpus Christi a little more than 18 months ago from Quantico, Virginia. Days after submitting their application to be a billet family, they took in their first player.
“I feel like the military has really taught us to just go with the flow,” Norman said.
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Norman said being a billet family has been an especially good experience for her children.
“They had someone specific to cheer for at games,” she said.
Norman won a trip to a 2022 Stanley Cup Final game and a $30,300 donation in her honor to The Ability Experience, a non-profit founded in 1977 by the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity that helps to empower people living with disabilities.
“A key part of The Ability Experience’s message is not to focus on someone’s disability but understand that we all have varying abilities and even someone that may be labeled as having a disability, they still possess great abilities to benefit those around them in their communities,” she explained.
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Norman called her win humbling.
“I’m always truly grateful and thankful,” she said. “Volunteering is not easy, but it is always rewarding.”
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.