Outlook

For your viewing pleasure

Monday, October 11, 2004

Again this summer, 240 of the nation’s top 15-year-old hockey players were at the SCSU National Hockey Center to participate in the USA Hockey annual Boys National Select 15 Festival. The Boys National Select 17 Camp, for 240 17-year-olds from all over the nation, was also held at the National Hockey Center, which is an official USA Hockey training center.

The festivals attracted hockey scouts who evaluated the players for professional, college and junior league teams. All practices and competitions during the weeklong event were open to the public at no cost.

In addition to 480 of the nation’s best hockey players, the two camps brought to campus as many as 400 scouts, 120 coaches and other staff, television, magazine and newspaper reporters, and parents who flew to Minnesota to watch their teens play.

The hockey players and staff were housed in SCSU residence halls. SCSU also worked with the St. Cloud Convention and Visitors Bureau to make motel arrangements for scouts, reporters, and families, with an approximate total of 1,200 rooms rented during the two camps.

The festivals are two examples of how SCSU uses its facilities for the benefit of the community and to generate income for the university:

• Every spring, area high schools use Halenbeck Hall for graduation ceremonies that are too large to be accommodated at their schools.
• As many as 600 Cub Scouts use the facilities for Bear Hibernation, their annual overnight camp.
• Every summer the United Methodist Church brings more than 1,000 people to campus for a national conference.
• Also during the summer months, roughly 3,000 young people participate in camps offered by SCSU. They include boys and girls basketball, youth football, volleyball, boys and girls hockey, pole vault, parent/child camp, and kids fun camp. The camps generally provide opportunities for the public to come and watch at no cost.

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