May 31--Memorial Cup Recap

No birthday celebration today. So I end the month of May 24/31 days that I had autographs for a players birthday (77.4%). I say thats pretty good as it was never a project to obtain as least one autograph for every day of the year.(maybe I should start).

So I will do a

Memorial Cup Recap

Congratulations to the Saint John Sea Dogs on their 3-1 cup win over the host Mississauga St. Michaels Majors.

As I posted earler, I was a volunteer at the 2011 Mastercard Memorial Cup, along with about 700 other people. There was a mixture of old and young alike. There was one lady teacher from Columbia who wanted to interact and learn how to speak real "English". There were three shifts available (8-1, 1-6 and 6-11). I worked at least one shift in every time slot. There was Tim Hortons coffee, along with donuts, muffins, cookies and bagels in the morning. Subway was a major sponsor and there were trays of subs at lunch and dinner time. Potato chips and beef sticks along with bottled water and pop were in abundance. Right now, though, I don't think I'll be eating subs for a while.

Pocket schedule 

Event guide

Program

Some items I picked up during the tournament.

St. Michaels College magazine, Memorial Cup Edition. The HHOF exhibit had a stetson like the one in the picture signed by the 1961 cup winning St. Mikes team

Front and back of two more Don Cherry promo cards for his jacket exhibit.

Towels I was giving out on Sunday game night at the CHL VIP lounge.

The pass one required to gain access to the VIP lounge. I was talking to Dale Hawerchuk for a few minutes as he was waiting for someone. We talked a bit about the upcoming game and a bit on hockey in Winnipeg. I don't know if he knew that I knew who he was so it was just two guys talking.

The local Mississauga News had a daily Memorial Cup special with news reports on the previous days events.

Game day/performer access pass that I required besides my volunteer pass.

Media kit from the championship game. Had all the stats from the previous games.

First period summary from the game.

Roster sheet for the game.

Jeff Skinner was signing one per on game day from 4-6. I got in line before my shift to get this signed postcard. Talked to him a bit and he seemed like a pretty nice guy.

Nazem Kadri was there but I heard he was not signing autographs. You could get your picture taken with him. Saturday, I saw coach Dave Cameron looking at this ad on his way out. I jokingly said to him that he should try and sign him for one game. He gave a chuckle and left.

Also, I found out on Sunday that they had signings through the week. Lou Franceschetti, Andy Chiodoo, Dave Dryden, Peter Ing, Red Kelly, Steve Ludzik and Dennis Maruk.

I first read on another blog about this replica Memorial Cup made out of sixty pounds of chocolate. Since the game was at the Hershey Centre, Hershey's had it made and put it on display.

Shirt and jacket to wear to denote us as volunteers.

Thank you card and Memorial Cup pin.

Thank you certificate signed by David Branch, Hazel McCallion, Eugene Melnyk and

Duncan Stauth.

We got these at a volunteer appreciation party on Monday. There were door prizes (I got a t-shirt, hat, pin and bag)

Guess you can tell that I had a whale of a time. If you ever get a chance to do something like this, I say go for it. I've now done this and the NHL All-Star game. I wonder what's next.