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A youth hockey scholarship from the Gina Bronge Memorial Fund helped Long Grove native Jesse Gould make a future choice between that sport and softball.

“The scholarship was a sign hockey was where I belonged,” said Gould, a graduate of Adlai E. Stevenson High School who started playing at age 3. “It shaped my college choice. It’s a game I love and led to so many friendships.”

Gould is one of more than 40 recipients over the last 11 years who’ve been given a total of $50,000 from a fund established in the memory of Gina Bronge of Deerfield, who was a passionate hockey player killed in a car crash in 2007 when she was 15.

The 12th annual Gina Bronge Memorial Hockey Game to raise scholarship money is set for 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20, at the Centennial Ice Arena in Highland Park between the Lake Forest Scouts, a team of high school girls, and a squad of area firefighters and police officers.

Now a Las Vegas resident and an assistant to a music producer, Gould will not play this year, but has participated in the past. Though she enjoyed reconnecting with former teammates, she also got a special feeling helping a new generation of hockey players thrive.

“Knowing I’m helping them get on the same path as me is pretty powerful and awesome,” Gould said.

Karen Pagano of Deerfield, Bronge’s mother, established the scholarship fund shortly after her daughter’s death and started the game the same year to keep Bronge’s memory alive.

A variety of fundraising activities accompany the game. Pagano said there is a raffle, tickets to Chicago Blackhawks hockey games and Chicago Cubs baseball games, a bake sale and a T-shirt sale. There is also a silent auction featuring an autographed jersey from the Bears’ Khalil Mack,

Pagano said the ice rink will open at 1 p.m. with open skating until 2:15, when the ice will be prepared for the game. When the puck drops, the Scouts will be short one defender for 22 seconds. Pagano said Bronge wore the number 22.

Julia Muscarello, 27, and a Lake Forest native now living in Chicago, has played in nine of the games over the years. She and Bronge were teammates in the Highland Park-based Falcons Hockey Association. Muscarello said the first 22 seconds are haunting.

“You’re skating with a defender missing for 22 seconds” she said. “It’s always a super emotional time. You’re wishing she could have been playing. You remember how good she was.”

Muscarello said she and Bronge started playing together with the Falcons when Muscarello was 12. They car-pooled to games and became friends. Bronge was the team captain.

“She was such a leader,” Muscarello said. “She defended the blue line so well. She gave 110 percent or more in every game. She inspired everyone to be the best player they could be.”

Gould said she was aware of Bronge even though they never played together since Gould was three years younger.

“I knew of her,” Gould said. “She was the person we all looked up to and wanted to be.”

Pagano said each year the game is a bittersweet time for her. It is an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, but mostly a time to watch people play the sport which was her daughter’s passion.

“It keeps her memory alive,” Pagano said. “I wish I could be watching her play hockey.”