The Coalition Supports Hockey Therapy

I'm sitting here thinking and wondering...Should I or Shouldn't I? What's the worse that could happen? The worse thing possible is the answer could be "No". I'm not one to go over every situation in my head, usually I just jump right to the worst case scenario, and in this case, the worst case scenario was a "No", so I did it.

I sat here, behind my computer and composed an email.

Dear Mr. Walker,

My name is...No delete that.

How are you?...No delete that.

Do you like Hockey?...No delete that.

Finally I get the perfect intro, "Hello Sir. I want to reintroduce myself to you. I am Jennifer Urbany, I have worked in the Heroes Thanking Heroes program for over 7 years but more importantly I am a caregiver to my husband Donald Urbany. I wanted to reach out to you to share something that we have been involved in the last few years. I don’t know about you but Hockey is something that my family is very passionate about. I even wrote a blog about our current journey on the HTH blog.".

I explained everything about our hockey team, that I would love to have The Coalition to Salute America's heroes an organization that I have been with and have been so passionate about for 7 years, be a part of something that has now become a new passion. My husband and his hockey team full of wounded veterans. 

Not even 5 minutes later I get an email back. I'm staring at the unopened email in bold sitting in my saluteheroes.org inbox. I'm thinking, "Oh my word, he wrote back...and he wrote back FAST!", "Ok Jenn, open this email. Remember the worse thing that could be in this email is 'No, thank you'.". 

I opened the email and the first sentence reads, "I like!". I continue to read Mr. Walker's email and find out that he is just as passionate about hockey as I am, AND we are both fans of the same team. The Washington Capitals (Let's Go Caps!)!  The last paragraph of his email read's "I would be happy to chat...I'd be happy and honored to review any proposals/ideas.".

We quickly set a date to meet, so on October 18th the VP and Co Captain (A Caps fan as well, he wears 8 on his NCW jersey) of the NC Warriors hockey team, and I took a road trip to Leesburg, VA. Drew (Co Captian) and I had gone back and forth days before we left about what time we had to leave. I told him I drove up to DC once every couple of months, and the best time to leave NC was no later than 6 AM. Usually it's a 4 hour drive, It would put us in the area a few hours early, but that was ok because if you are on time you are late, and there's nothing wrong with sitting somewhere for a bit and drinking a pumpkin spice latte.

It just so happened that traffic...was...HORRIBLE! The usual 4 hour trip took us SIX HOURS! The GPS said we would be in Leesburg at 12:30PM...THE MEETING IS AT ONE! We can't be late!! So, I'm panicking, and Drew Mr. Level Headed says, "If there's nothing we can do about the situation lets not worry, you can email Mr. Walker, he lives here, I'm sure he knows about the traffic". He was right, but I got to say "I told you so" about the traffic all the way to Leesburg, and we left a 6:30 AM.

We got to Leesburg in just enough time to be early, because remember if you are on time you are late. We rode the elevator to the third floor and knocked on the door. Here comes Mr. Walker with a warm welcoming smile, a handshake, and he says "I'm happy to see you!".

Walking into his office, I'm a bit nervous, I didn't know what to expect. I have never done anything like this before. We sat down and Mr. Walker looks at me and says "First thing's first, this is for you.", as he hands me an official NHL Stanley Cup Finals picture of Braden Holtby's amazing save that ultimately changed the course of the Finals and led to the Capitals first ever Stanley Cup win. My jaw was on the floor for a good 5 minutes and all I could manage to say was "Thank you!", I think I said it a few hundred times.

Mr. Walker offers us some water, and we get on with the meeting. Drew is explaining the mission, and technical boring stuff, and I'm explaining the change I have seen in Donald and ALL of the other guys on the team from the first practice to today. How at first I could see how they didn't really know how to act or what to say to each other, to being a family with a huge support system. I even referred to Drew as my "Brother from another mother.", it's true though.


The meeting ended with a big, "The answer is yes.", my heart skipped a beat.

We all smiled,  Mr. Walker and the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes offered $2,500 to help with ice time and to help with equipment for the guys who could not afford it, and $5,000 to sponsor the team's trip to Pittsburgh in March so the team can bring their families, have enough hotel rooms and provide a few meals for everyone.

Mr. Walker happily wrote a check for $7,500 made out to the NC Warriors, and I gave Mr. Walker like a million hugs. Mr. Walker gave us some really nice Coalition jackets, and we all had smiles on our face as we walked out.

All it took was an email, a simple question, and a mutual passion for veterans and hockey.

Thank you Mr. David Walker, and the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes for helping the NC Warriors hockey team continue their passion of hockey and mission to help rehabilitate Veterans with a stick, a puck, ice skates, and a good time.