News Release

UPMC NORTHWEST SPORTS MEDICINE SALUTES 11 STUDENTS
Honorees get tickets for Pittsburgh Penguins games at Mellon Arena

Aug. 12, 2006 — The certified athletic trainers of UPMC Northwest Sports Medicine and the Pittsburgh-based Tickets for Kids Foundation have joined forces to provide 11 local high school students with Pittsburgh Penguins tickets in recognition of academic excellence and completing their sports medicine rehabilitation programs.

The tickets, which are part of a large donation from UPMC to the Tickets for Kids Foundation announced last fall, are for the Penguins game April 2 against the New Jersey Devils or April 13 against the New York Rangers at Mellon Arena. Free tickets also will go to one guest of each of the 11 honor roll students.

UPMC Northwest Sports Medicine's certified athletic trainers coordinated the ticket project in observance of National Athletic Training Month. Certified athletic trainers are medical professionals who are specially trained in the prevention, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation of injuries that affect athletes and other physically active people.

"We appreciate being part of the UPMC Sports Medicine team and the opportunity to team up with Tickets for Kids," says certified athletic trainer Jennifer Ongley of UPMC Northwest Sports Medicine. "We're always looking for ways to reward our student-athletes for working so hard on and off the field."

UPMC Northwest Sports Medicine provides a variety of services for athletes from Cranberry, Franklin, Oil City, Rocky Grove and Venango Catholic high schools including preseason muscle/skeletal screening, sports medicine staff coverage of local high school athletic events, and post-injury rehabilitation such as that which the ticket recipients completed. UPMC Northwest Sports Medicine staff members also serve as educators and consultants to local high school coaching staff members and to students interested in pursuing a career in athletic training.

Every year UPMC Northwest's certified athletic trainers cover more than 500 local high school athletic contests that involve almost 1,300 competitors.

In addition to Ms. Ongley, UPMC Northwest Sports Medicine's certified athletic trainers are Becky Barnes, Derek Stewart, Ellen Stover, and Mel Wenmoth.

Tickets for Kids Foundation, part of the Pittsburgh area since 1994, provides hundreds of children and families with an opportunity to attend sporting, cultural, and educational events every year.