canadian content

for my un-canadian friends we have a national broadcast station called CBC (tv, radio..) they are host to something called Hockey Night in Canada.. big deal NHL stuff. they also host something once a year called Hockey Day in Canada where they go on location somewhere cool (small town, hockey history..) still with me. So this year Hockey Day 2008 is held in Winkler (thats where I was born and raised and reside) its a big deal.. lots of big names in hockey and every time CBC goes on air its from Winkler this weekend.. cool publicity. anyways yesterday the place I work hosted a private VIP party after the game last night... the night started off a big rocky. people were late and we were beginning to think it might be a bust... slowly the celebs start trickling in.. I think the first to "stumble" in was Wendell Clark (Toronto Maple Leafs), Cassie Campbell (Women's Gold medel Olympic hockey team). There were a few too many of us staff on and at first Jen, Kristen and I were standing there kind of greeting people as they made their way to the bar... I'm first in line and all of a sudden I turn around and its a very friendly Ron Maclean. "Hi, How are you. I'm Ron" holds out hand to shake. I take it and say very diplomatically "Uhh yeah." long pause with red cheeks "I'm Heather" Jen and Kristen busting out laughing. It was quite hilarious. I am unsure of where my star struckness came from but it was just so surreal for me that he was shaking my hand and telling me his name...
The rest of the evening was fun... Kelley Hrudey and I were friends by the end of the night. The guy was always at the food table... every time I would go to pick up his empty plate he'd say "Oh I think I'll get more" I would smile and say "Kelley you can just get a new plate" He'd smile. It was nice.
The highlight was when Ron came to the back servery and posed for photos and signed autographs.. he really was just so nice. and way skinnier than you would have guessed when you see him on TV. anyways it was a good night and I am happy to have brought you this Canadian content.oh the last photo (bottom right) is where Don Cherry was supposed to be but he didn't make it