The Philadelphia Flyers are honouring the late Jessica Redfield’s memory with the creation of a new position with the team.
Redfield, an aspiring sports journalist, was murdered in the Aurora, Colo. theatre massacre that killed 12 and saw 58 other moviegoers wounded at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises on July 20.
To remember Redfield, the Flyers have created a digital media internship for female college students with ambitions of getting into the field of sports journalism.
“We felt the best way to assist with this great cause was to offer an internship of our own to help these prospective recipients gain the real world experience of covering a professional sports team,” said Flyers president Peter Luukko in a report on the team’s official site. “The goal of the fund is to build futures in her name."
Redfield, who was born Jessica Ghawi, was an intern with the You Can Play project who was living in Denver and working towards a career as a sportscaster at the time of her death.
The Flyers are the second NHL organization to get involved with the remembrance of the slain up-and-coming journalist. In late July the Los Angeles Kings donated $10,000 to the Jessica Redfield Journalism Fund, a charity that was established to help a prospective sports journalist to college.
“I’m still mourning the loss of my daughter but through this tragedy I’ve been given a huge gift. And the gift keeps on giving thanks to the Flyers,” Sandy Phillips, Redfield’s mother, told the Flyers’ official website. “I would be honored to meet the person who receives this internship somehow, so I can let them know personally just how much this means to me and to Jessica’s legacy.”
Bravo to the
#Flyers for starting an internship to honor memory of Jessica Redfield, the young hockey writer killed in the Aurora shootings.— Sam Carchidi (@BroadStBull) August 14, 2012
