Scotiabank Hockey for Alzheimers 2014

This is an event that I volunteer for every year since it's inception.  This is Gordie Howe's event.  I look forward to seeing him every year at the event. However, this year, things took a turn for the worse for Mr. Hockey.  He suffered a stroke a few weeks ago. He was recovering well after the stroke but heard he was getting worse on the day of the event.

I have met Mr. Howe before.  Back in 2007 at the Memorial Cup event in Vancouver.  I worked in hospitality and he was always around.  Always made a point to say hi to me every day and made sure I saw his VIP wrist band when I was checking at access points.  Mind you, he never needed to show it to me. He's Gordie Howe.  The greatest hockey player ever.  He never needed to show me his wrist band but he did cause that's just who he was.  I finally got to have a conversation with him in the green room at the River Rock Theatre.  Again, I was doing access control for the room when he walked over to me before heading up to the awards ceremony.  I thought he was going to ask me where the bathroom was, but instead he wanted to know how I'd been doing and if I'd enjoyed being at Memorial Cup among other things.  He wanted to small chat.  It as a brief conversation but it was one I'll remember always.  He never behaves like one of the other hockey greats who shall remain nameless, who wink at you and think they are the greatest people alive.  He never made you feel cheap.  Instead he made you feel appreciated. Gordie Howe to me is the most classiest person in hockey.  I will say a prayer for him and send him good vibes.  The hockey world needs more Gordie Howes.  We can't lose him yet.

From the emails I received from the event a few days before, I noticed was that the location was different this year.  It's always been held at the Canlan Ice Sports arena in North Vancouver.  However, this year, it was held at the Planet Ice, formally The Great Pacific Forum, in Delta.  It was a bit tricky getting there as its just off Nordel Way by the Alex Fraser bridge but curls around Anansis Island and back into Delta.  In any case, I got there pretty quickly from Surrey thanks to google map.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that the area where the reception desk was located was inside another room close to the entrance. Not in the entrance like it was set up at Canlan.  At Canlan it was ALWAYS freezing in that area.  I'm talking super cold.  Here, it was much warmer and more pleasant to work.

I met with the coordinator and she gave me the instructions on what to do and then gave me a breakfast voucher to eat at the restaurant upstairs.  There were a group of us starting at our various tasks at 9am.  It was still 8am when we got there.  So, we all decided to get something to eat.  I had a muffin, hashbrowns and eggs with a cup of coffee.  Once we were all done eating we headed back down to our reception area.  I sat down at the reception desk and go to work. The others had other roles and dissapeared.  My role was to hand out tickets to those who had tickets left for them by a player or for those who donated to a player and to address all questions and solve problems.   I saw a few Canucks Alumnis.  The regulars were there, Gary Valk, Greg Adams and Darcy Rota.  Kirk McLean, Gary Nyland and Theo Fleury are usually there too but I believe that McLean was touring in Kelowna with the Hockey Hometown event at the time. It was the second day of the tournament so I may have missed the others.  I had to work the elections the day before so I missed the first day.

Here's Greg Adams doing an interview outside the reception area by the rink. Alzheimers is very close to his heart as his father suffers from it.

Close to lunch time, the other girls were setting up the jersey's for the All-Star game behind me.  So I took pics.

I didn't have too much to do as it was slower on Sunday than it was on Saturday but it was still a fun event.  The people who run the event are awesome and do a really good job of it.  I was given another snack voucher around 10 am and then a lunch voucher as I was about to leave at 12 pm when my shift was over.  I thought that was more than generous for their volunteers.  I was given a lanyard to wear and got to be a part of something amazing again.  I'll be back again next year. I hope Mr. Hockey will be back again too.

Canada Women's Soccer vs Japan October 28, 2014

So, since the last match back in June, I've been busy mainly with Grey Cup Festival stuff.  Not much volunteering except for this.   For this event, I was the Youth Programme Coordinator again but this time I had a different role.  This time, instead of teenagers and flags, I had been given the task of directing children 10 and under who were to be the player escorts.

Curtis took me over to the East Entrance and showed me what he wanted me to do with the kids on the pitch.

Canadian Tire was a huge sponsor for these kids.  They were given jerseys to wear when they got there.  I had them all wrist banded and role called before we headed into the banquet room at BC Place to have them site for a bit and place their bags and jackets away.  I was given a radio and awaited for Curtis to give me the heads up to start bringing my kids down the 'ring road' to the West Entrance where the flag girls had just finished rehearsing their bit.

I lined up my kids in two lines.  One for Team Canada and the other for Team Japan.  I lined them up behind the flag girls and waited for the FIFA music to start playing.  Once this happened, we started to walk out together and showed my crew where to walk and stand on the pitch once the flag girls were in place.  Once the anthems were done, I had the kid at the farthest end of the line run towards the corner of the pitch.  We rehearsed this a few times with the flag girls to make sure it was all set in their minds.  Then I took them back to the banquet room for dinner and drinks (pizza and Gatorade). 

They had no idea that they were going to be getting a whole kit to change into so they can wear it out with the players.  Once they finished eating, I announced they were to going to get the kits and had to change into them.  They were so excited.  I handed the kits out with the help of Balbir, the other Youth Programme Coordinator.  One of the little girls wore thigh high grey boots.  She didn't bring her runners.  So, she had to go on the pitch with her red uniform on with grey boots.  Not much we could do about it.

Again, I awaited for Curtis to give me the go ahead to bring them over to the West Entrance to get set behind the flag bearers.  I had them in their two lines and they were getting excited as they could see the players warming up on the pitch pre-game.  Soccer balls were being kicked into the entrance and the kids were grabbing them and sending them back out to the players.  It was exciting for them.  I went over some things for them to remember when they went out as I wouldn't be going onto the pitch with them this time.

The players came off the pitch and headed into their dressing rooms on either sides of the west entrance.  This was my cue to get the kids ready.  The players came out shortly and lined up next to their little buddies.  You could see how excited they were.  Curtis had asked me to walk over to the other side of the pitch where they would be running off to after the anthems to greet them and send them through the east entrance.  So, as the FIFA anthem started, the flag bearers and players with their escorts walked onto the pitch, I slowly made my way around the side of the pitch to the corner to await them.  I watched from there as they walked into line in front of the players and waited for the pyros to go off before running hand-in-hand off the pitch towards me.  As they came towards me, I directed them to follow the flag bearers out the east entrance and back into the 'ring road'.

They did an amazing job and I was so proud of them.  They were so happy and excited they got to do something so cool.  I took them back to the banquet room where they got to eat and drink some more before they changed again into a different set of Canadian Tire jerseys for the half time show.  Once they were all ready to go, I took them all up to the 2nd level concourse and to the section where their families were sitting.  From there, I left them with their parents and let them know that someone else will come and get them for the half-time show.  It was still in the first half when my role was complete.  I saw some Team Leads I work with at BC Place and talked to them a bit before I headed down to say goodbye to Curtis.  Once I got down there, all the pizza was gone and Curtis was no where to be found, so I left.  It was a great experience once again.  Next up, Womens FIFA 2015!!