It’s not every day a hockey player visits your grade school classroom.
The 1, 2, 3 behaviour split class at Montrose Elementary was ecstatic when the Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan Whitney stopped by to read to the students yesterday afternoon.
“It’s cool to see how excited the kids get and how you can involve their excitement in learning and getting to meet some of their favourite athletes and the teams they root for,” said the Oilers defenceman.
Inspiring the class is essential, since the children in the behaviour group struggle daily with challenges in their lives.
“Financially their families aren’t able to give them that opportunity to even go to a hockey game,” said teacher Mariel Kleparchuk.
“When we got to skate at Rexall Place as part of the Ice School Program this year, a lot of them got really emotional. They didn’t want to go because they didn’t have the skates.”
