This weekend was the
experience of a lifetime.
Starting off Friday evening,
we arrived greeted by our peers we would be spending the weekend with. From
staff to the team, we were all given a warm welcome.
We arrived in our rooms, got
settled down then went for a welcome dinner/meeting. We had speakers such as
the OWHA leader, former Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion and Angela James.
(who is a former hockey player and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame) After, we
socialized with the girls and had dinner for about 2 hours.
The next day we headed off to the Hockey Hall Of fame where we go to see the Stanley cup and travel around the building reading stories on hockey legends. From there, we traveled all the way to Niagara Falls where we had an amazing top view of the falls and also got the opportunity to travel under them getting a nice side and under view.
After that we came back and watched a hockey game before heading to dinner; another social event where they also announced the teams for the next day which was a mix of girls from all across Canada.
Next we got to swim in the hotel pool and go down the amazing waterslide.
The next morning we headed off to Iceland arena for a training session with provincial coaches. They helped us build technique as well as learning better positioning.
We headed back to the hotel for a quick lunch and some down time.
We headed back to Iceland arena for the big game. We were interviewed by OWHA.
Prior to the game we had a on-ice 15 minute warm-up followed by a flood.
When game-time arrived we had speakers from the OWHA followed by the player announcements with each player representing one of the 38 countries participating in the Global Game.
After that, it was game time. I was thrilled to have family and teammates and coaches from my Lady Rangers team come out to watch the game. We pulled through with a 132-126 for team blue with accumulated score of goals across the world. It was an energetic and I was fortunate enough to make it on the score sheet with an assist.
We finished off the weekend with dinner and plaque awards. This was an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget. I met new friends from Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and many from Ontario creating bonds over the love of hockey.
I would like to give a huge thanks to OWHA for organizing this wonderful event, all the staff and coaches that made it possible and all my supporters back in Kitchener who came to support me or watched from their houses. I would also like to thank KMHA, City of Kitchener and KW Oktoberfest for providing souvenirs that I was able to hand out to my teammates.
This was a weekend will never forget.