Editor: As the manager of a Langley community football team, I would like to let you know what transpired on Sept. 29.
Langley Minor Football Association had two teams traveling to Victoria for week 5 of the regular season. Both teams were playing at the same stadium, back to back, so we had decided to have the first team (bantam team) stay to watch the midget game and then we would all travel back home together. This was in part due to the fact that the head coach of the bantam team was on the other side of the planet for work and more adults meant more supervision.
During the third quarter of the second game, I was approached by our president, and told the ferries were shut down for the night and that we were not getting home that evening.
Jen Boyd, new president of the Victoria Spartans Association, and her group of helpers were quick to get on the phone with a local hotel and book rooms for the more than 100 of us who were stranded. Not only did they jump to get this done before the rooms could be snatched up by other stranded travelers, but what happened next was above and beyond the call of duty.
They told the hotel of the situation and had them agree to cut their rates for us, and then they offered to split the remaining hotel cost with our association.
As we were getting on our buses to head to the hotel, we were informed that one of their coaches owns a local pizza shop and was going to supply us dinner. Lo and behold, an hour later here comes Jen and her helpers with roughly 80 pizzas and a slew of sodas for the boys.
It doesn’t end there. A couple of our players do not eat meat and the only remaining slices of pizza had meat on them. What did they do? They drove all the way back to Sooke to get a vegetarian pizza just for them.
This is during a windstorm that had shut down the ferries.
When they arrived back from the second pizza run, they didn’t just bring pizza and a few pasta dishes. They must have overheard the conversation I was having with one of our players, who happened to be celebrating his 18th birthday that day. These folks made sure it was not left unnoticed. Upon arrival the second time there was a pack of candles, plates, forks etc. — enough to serve the two teams the five cakes they brought back with them.
We, the bantam Mustangs and midget Stampeders, want to publicly thank the Victoria Spartans football club, president Jen Boyd and all her amazing volunteers for taking such great care of us.
CORY Pawluk,
Langley Minor Football
