Day With the Cup

I was overjoyed back in June when the Pittsburgh Penguins won their fourth Stanley Cup, but it keeps getting better. Matt Cullen, who is from Moorhead, MN, was a key part of the team throughout the regular season and playoffs, and brought the Cup back home to share with the community last weekend. My family and I live right here in Moorhead, so we had the wonderful opportunity to see the Cup. My wife and I dropped our girls' off at my parents' house, and were on our way.

I was expecting just to be able to look at it, and hopefully, take a picture with it, which would have been incredible just by itself. However, as we got closer, I noticed that Cullen himself was right there with it, taking pictures with every single fan right next to the Stanley Cup. After an hour and a half in line, there we were. 

It really was an impressive operation they had set up. In order to get as many people through as possible, they hired two professional photographers, and assembly-lined everyone through. Pictures were then uploaded almost immediately to a computer station, where they did the necessary cropping, and printed up a 3x5 for each person in the shot, as well as e-mailing a digital copy for social media use. 

After having some time to share the Stanley Cup with his family in the morning, Cullen took it to visit children involved with his "Cully's Kids" charity, which helps battle childhood cancer, then brought it to the Moorhead Youth Hockey Arena, where he shared it with local youth hockey players. After that, it came to a tent set up outside the arena, which is where my wife and I saw it.

It may have been Matt Cullen's "day with the Cup," but I was so grateful for the opportunity for my "moment with the Cup."