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Memorial Cup: An experience not soon forgotten By Steve Burns, Capital News contributor I wanted to take this column to communicate my very positive Memorial Cup experience over this past weekend. Due to a rather busy sports week with the two soccer teams and basketball team that I coach, I was not able to attend many of the Memorial Cup games or events during the week. I did, however, attend the CHL Awards banquet (thanks to Okanagan Telephone and Bell Canada) and the last two games of the Memorial Cup. This story is an interesting one … My son Joshua's hockey coach, Trevor Kilburn, offered us three tickets to Saturday's game between the Gatineau Olympiques and the Medicine Hat Tigers through our Kelowna Minor Hockey coordinator Kevin Lindsay. Joshua was so excited to not only be going to the game but to be playing during the first period. Joshua said that he has never seen so many people in the building at one time and was a little nervous. It was definitely an event that he will always remember—“it was so cool Dad—I think they were cheering for me” were his words to summarize how he felt. I ended up standing at the south end of the arena and happened to be near many of the Medicine Hat Tiger fans. Not really thinking anything of this, I asked one of the attendants if she knew how I could get tickets to the championship game. She introduced me to one of the Medicine Hat Tiger fans that had two seats that he said he would be willing to sell to me if the Tigers lost the game. I actually was cheering for the Tigers as I was hoping for an all WHL final. As the game progressed, I began to get nervous when I heard that tickets for the championship game were selling for $150 to $200 a ticket. At the end of the game, the gentleman from Medicine Hat discussed it with his wife and this is what he said: “Kel-owna has been so good to us. Your city has rolled out the red carpet for all of us. You did a great job hosting this event and did the WHL proud. Your community has come through so much in the last year—you showed us that you are in fact the most caring community of all. You can have our tickets for what we paid for them—$30 each.” I was overwhelmed by his words of encouragement and generosity. I told him that we appreciated their support and wished the Medicine Hat Tigers all the best in the upcoming season. Now was the question of who would I take to the game. I have three children, Brittany,13, Brianne,11, and Joshua 8, all of whom enjoy watching the Rockets. I felt that I should offer the ticket to Joshua's coach Trevor as without him we would not have had the opportunity to purchase the ticket for the championship game in the first place. Trevor appreciated the offer but thought that I should take Joshua. Joshua and I talked about the fact that there was only one ticket and that I wanted him to make the choice as to whether he would get the ticket or one of his sisters. Joshua said this “Dad, Brianne (his sister) always plays hockey with me downstairs whenever I ask her to and she loves playing and watching the Rockets just as much as I do. I choose to give her the ticket and let her go to the final game.” Brianne and I screamed our heads off with the other 6,545 fans as we watched the Rockets clinch the Memorial Cup in a very fast paced, exciting game. Joshua, through his kindness, helped to create a memory for his sister Brianne that she will never forget. Thank you to Bruce Hamilton and his family for being gracious hosts of the 2004 Memorial Cup. Some are saying is the best Memorial Cup ever. Thank you to Paul Mitchell and Bill Winters for helping to bring such a hugely successful sporting event to Kelowna, the economic spin-offs of which are estimated to be in the $20 million range. Thank you to the more than 700 volunteers for their endless energy and support. Thank you to all the players and coaches of all four teams—what an incredible demonstration of skill, ability and passion for the game. I think that the fire last August demonstrated how our community can come together and the Memorial Cup further exemplified this. We should all be proud of what our community and our team has accomplished. It is privilege to work and play in the city that is viewed by others as “the most caring community of all”. Steve Burns, CA, CMC, CFP, is the president and CEO of Burns Innovation Group Inc. Reach Steve at 763-4716 or via e-mail at:
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