The Steinbach Pistons have been busy off the ice, going school to school answering questions, participating in classroom activities and playing floor hockey with students.
"It means a lot to us," says Blumenort's grade 4 teacher Tanya Kasdorf about the Pistons taking part in their numeracy month this past week. "We had the honor of having them last year. Our kids begged to have them back this year, as well as our staff begged to have them back, because they interacted very well with the students."
Usually the Pistons will send a couple of players to a school for about half-an-hour to talk to the kids, but this past week in Blumenort the team sent ten players who individually spent time in different classrooms taking part in numeracy activities.
"Some of the lower grade levels played games with the players' jersey numbers," says Kasdorf who currently billets Pistons defenseman Matthew Franczyk. "In the older grades they did things like graphing the players' penalty minutes. The teachers planned it and it was dependent on the grade level of the kids."
After breaking down numbers for most of the morning, the players along with the students were rewarded to a big game of floor hockey in the gymnasium. Only a select few were allowed to play, while the rest watched and cheered on their classmates as Steinbachonline.com's sports reporter, Kevin Geisheimer, called the play-by-play over the school's speaker system.
"It felt surreal," says Franzyk after signing a bunch of autographs once the event was over. "They made us feel like a big deal, although it's only just junior 'A' hockey. They love us and we really love them too, it's just a lot of fun."
The Pistons have visited five schools and still have another eight on their schedule before the end of the season. The Pistons' goal is to raise awareness about the team with every visit. They don't just do that by interacting with the kids they also give each student a free ticket to an upcoming game.
This past Saturday's contest versus the Selkirk Steelers was Stony Brook Middle School Night. Blumenort will get their turn coming up this Friday when Steinbach hosts the Winnipeg Blues 7:30pm at the T.G. Smith Centre.
Pictures courtesy of Blumenort School
Sun, May 5, 2:24 PM
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