09/25/2008 at 12:42am EDT
Prepare yourself—I’ve got a pile of Canucks news accompanied by a serious overdose of photos.
To start with, Wednesday was the Raise-a-Reader campaign in Vancouver. From the Vancouver Canucks:
Raise-a-Reader started in Vancouver in 1997 and has since raised over $4.2 million dollars in support of children and family literacy in British Columbia alone. The Raise-a-Reader program went national in 2002, with twenty eight other Canadian cities hosting Raise-a-Reader Day this year. The Vancouver Raise-a-Reader campaign continuously leads the rest of the country in annual fundraising.
For those who aren’t familiar with it, the set-up was simple and fun: Just donate a buck or two for a Vancouver Sun then walk around the various street corners of downtown Vancouver during the early rush-hour where various Canucks - current players and alumni as well as a few team executives—willingly allow you to accost them on the street.
Much fun. I’ve taken to calling it “Canucks Fans Streetwalking for Literacy.”
So this morning, my husband Jeff Downie and I walked around the downtown along with Rebecca & John Bollwitt (also fellow members of The Crazy Canucks), where we took a pile of photos and shook a lot of hands. Courtesy of John’s camera (and his overburdened Flickr account) here are a few…
Jeff and Orland Kurtenbach, who was incredibly friendly
Alanah, Ryan Kesler (also incredibly nice) and Rebecca
Jeff and Stan Smyl (Probably the most thrilling moment of Jeff’s life, believe me.)
Rebecca, Mike Gillis and Alanah (Probably not the most thrilling moment of Mike’s life…) :)
The night before the streetwalking exercise, we also got together for an evening in one of the new luxury suites at GM Place, courtesy of the Canucks and along with an impressive collection of bloggers, podcasters & webmasters. A unique environment to watch the Canucks beat the Oilers, that’s for sure.
The podcast crew also recorded an episode after the first period (John, Rebecca, J.J., Dave and myself). That show should be online soon, but meanwhile here are a couple photos from that.
DaveO, John and Alanah
J.J., mid-sentence of something brilliant and educational!
Rebecca with Matt Pettinger, who stopped by the box to meet everyone
DaveO, sharing a story with the Canucks.com camera in our vertigo-inducing suite
I also noticed the guys from the Anton Sledgehammer agency filming some of the show, so I imagine that video will be turning up somewhere online as well. For more TCC stuff, you can check out the Fan Zone page they created for us at Canucks.com.
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One of the people I had the honor of meeting Tuesday night was Brian of Canucks Corner fame. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of him, but I wanted to mention that Brian’s was the first fan site I ever came across back in 2003 which inspired me to set up my own first hockey blog that same year. It was the civility and informative nature of his site and its members that first persuaded me that the internet was a great place to meet other hockey fans.
Brian’s overhauling the site right now but Vancouver fans should check back. Canucks Corner has been around some 10 years and going strong.
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All right, I’m finished. Oh, except one more thing…
The Canucks new advertising campaign to launch the 2008-09 season is being unveiled next week, and scarily enough, myself and the rest of the podcast crew play a part in that.
I believe I heard something along the lines of “your faces” and “on the side of Vancouver city busses…”
Sweet geezus—how nuts is that?
Be afraid, Vancouver…
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*John’s Flickr set for Raise a Reader and his other photos from our time at Tuesday’s game. The Pettinger photo is from Miss 604’s Flickr.
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