Coming Back 10-Fold

Written by Emily Cruse

What it means that things come back 10 fold-it’s not always dollar for dollar.  Sometimes things are bigger than we ever expected. A few weeks prior to the pandemic, I bought ten discounted tickets to a hockey game. I thought it would be cool for a few matches to try something new. That was of course delayed a year. The day finally came and, well.. it was canceled AGAIN. This guy named Mario (now a friend) says, I’m so sorry stuff keeps happening. I just started laughing and said “we just got to roll with it, right?” We connected well and a few weeks later, I received a set of free tickets to another game. He shared how much the team enjoyed seeing the kids having fun. Last Summer, we decided to create a formal partnership for the school year. The Stingrays shared all the amazing ways they could help. I shared that all I really wanted was for the players and Mario to hang out with the kids on a few occasions and play hockey. I wanted the kids to make the connection when we actually went to games. The team agreed to come to two events. The players had so much fun they decided to come to the center on (almost) a biweekly basis. When our youth went to the games, they demanded to know where Jake, Mario, Chaz, Victor, Subban and the others were at all times. The team made the kids feel like they were famous.

Thank you South Carolina Stingrays from the bottom of my heart! You have touched our lives in a great way!