After a fantastic trip to Philly, it was back to the 303 on the late flight! I finally made it home in the wee hours of Friday morning to sneak in few hours of sleep before heading to Everitt Middle School in Wheat Ridge to kick off another powerful day. A big thanks to Kris Neumayr-Maikranz for choosing Dawg Nation Hockey to participate in today’s “Wellness and Resiliency Day”. I was joined by Ashton Stephenson on this one as he shared the story of his life changing car accident and the resilience he shows on a daily basis. To me there isn’t anything much better than to share the incredible stories of resilience, like Ashton’s, that make up our Dawg pack. The students of Everitt face many more obstacles than the average young teen and being able to share our stories while providing hope and encouragement was definitely worth missing a few hours of sleep! For me, the biggest win was witnessing disinterested young adults enter a room with frowns and then leave the room with smiles, fist bumps and heads held high. As I made my way out, a young girl came up to me and said, “you were my favorite part of the day, you inspired me.” How about that?!!! Not sure it can get much better than that!
