If you have been following the Winter Olympics, you might be familiar with the Cleveland Heights native who is making Northeast Ohio proud and making history on the ice rink.
Hockey defender Laila Edwards is the first African American woman to play for the U.S. Olympic Women's Hockey team.
And on Monday, she played a huge role in the team's shutout win against Switzerland.
Fans have been cheering Laila on from 4,300 miles away since Day 1 of the Olympics. But thanks to some kids in Shaker, her brother is about to cheer her on in Italy.
Bobby Edwards is a youth hockey coach in Shaker, and as you might guess, a trip to Italy is expensive.
So his players organized a fundraiser to send his coach overseas to watch his sister compete.
"It's really cool," Bobby Edwards said. "She gets to represent a lot of young kids and black girls that maybe ... want to do the same thing she's done so far. So I just think it's really cool that she's able to be on that stage. A lot of people told me they look up to her; she's inspired them. And that makes me really happy for sure."
Laila and Bobby's parents were also able to make it to Italy with some help from some other Cleveland Heights-born athletes—Travis and Jason Kelce.
