685 words in my story telling. Not including the title.
Including the title 689.
In case, you can't read the novella I wrote:
Through hockey I have had many unexpected gifts. Gifts of friendship, gifts of volunteerism, gifts of giving my time and talents. Who knew that this this could happen by simply starting to go to hockey games with my husband and son? Originally, my idea was for my husband and son to have something to bond over. Go to a hockey game, the two of them. There was a new American Hockey League team in the nearby town of Bridgeport, Connecticut. My boys went and were hooked. The Bridgeport Sound Tigers had us hooked, hook, line and shut out! The team almost won the Calder Cup that season, 2001 -2002. The AHL equivalent of the NHL’s Stanley Cup. Right up to game 7. The next season, my boys got a partial season ticket pass. My son was having a difficult time writing so I asked him to take his dad’s Blackberry and e-mail me how the game was going. A gift for sure, he was writing. Happily writing. Most of the e-mails were quite funny and had way too many exclamation points. What player was playing in the net, who was fighting, what was he eating? Did he see the mascot, Storm? Get a high five? Be still my foolish heart. I needed in on this.
The next season, I began going to the games with them. I was hooked right away. I met this group of people who did charity work with the team. I joined right away. Their “goal” was to support the team, raise money for charity and have fun. The gift of the friendship of these people has been a treasure. Through them, I helped raise money, help create an all hockey Christmas tree for the Ronald McDonald House for many years, and I created many artsy things for them to sell and raise funds. For a few years, we had a hockey scrapbook of player photos, autographed that we raffled off. Friends in the club helped create this. Friends that I still love and respect today. The Bridgeport Sound Tiger’s Booster Club is a happy place in my heart.
The announcer for the team was a young man named Dave Schneider. Funny, talented, generous and also in a band called the Zambonis. Naturally, what else? A band who only sings songs about hockey. Naturally, when he needed help for a fundraiser, I volunteered. I got my daughter’s friends involved too and brought two cars full of teens to volunteer that night. The Zambonis were raising money for a little girl who needed a medical machine to help her lungs work properly. More gifts, to be thankful for. Serving others is a gift that I always want to do when I can. I have to add that this was a concert with not only the greatest all hockey band in the universe, but the best band called Harry and the Potters! Sweetest kids ever.
The gifts kept coming too. Creating for the Booster Club, donating my time, my creativity, money, could never equal the gifts of friendship, fun and laughs for sure. I was gifted with the pleasure of baking for the team. Mainly because I’m a mom, not a fan who wants something from a player and I love to bake. I stopped this a couple years ago because it was too much work to get the treats into the arena (no outside food allowed in!) for the team. Driving up to the away bus was easy, but that was really for cookies and healthy snacks. The gift of the one player who barely spoke English saying “thank you!” was plenty. The other gift of laughter when a player saw the plate of cookies and announced they all were his, and his team mate who asked me to bake them, telling me I “was going to make him fat!” in his French Canadian accent. I still quote that sometimes.
Gifts of life, fun, learning, and giving are the best gifts ever. I will forever be thankful for them and look forward to giving and receiving more gifts when hockey returns someday.
That is my photograph of the band, The Zambonis. If you love hockey, please, give them a listen. They wrote the famous song, Hockey Monkey that was played on Nickelodeon.
I only used the kit from Paula Kesselring called Photography.
