Most of these 10 and 12 year olds never met Shannon, but they know her story now. They know her favorite color and lime green could be seen on ribbons in their hair and tape on their helmets and sticks. Everyone had lime green laces. One of the goalies even lined her pads with lime green tape. Heck, even the other teams got into the spirit as we saw the White Bear Lake team sporting Shannon stickers on their helmets. Cool.
We also watched our friend's daughter play wearing Shannon's equipment. Margaret has finally grown into Shannon's gear, and she wears it with pride. Much better to see that helmet out on the ice than sitting in a closet...
Dan, Erin and I took in a dozen games this weekend, trying to catch each Rochester team playing. Yesterday, while watching a game, a group of girls came up to us. Dan said "hello" and they asked, "Are you Shannon's dad?"
"Yes, I am."
"Cool. We just wanted to meet you."
These are the girls that will help us continue our mission now that Shannon's peers are aging out of youth hockey.
We visited each of these teams during their practice earlier this week to wish them well in their tournaments and tell them a little bit more about Shannon. How she loved hockey, but she really loved being a good teammate. That's what mattered to her most. If they want to be like Shannon, they should work hard on the ice and be nice off it.
These teams wanted to win the Shannon Cup so badly. You could see it in victory - the elation of the 12B Rebels after winning the championship in overtime. And, you could see it in defeat - the tears flowing from the 10B team after losing their championship game in overtime.
We were there to hand out medals and trophies, give high fives to winners and hugs to those who felt defeat. It was really fun for us to see these girls play. Definitely brings back so many good memories for me and Dan.
So, that wraps up our hockey fundraising events for the year. The Shannon Fund is now at $48,000. We are humbled and grateful. Thank you.
