Opinion Letter: Petes Player Great Role Model

A letter to the Peterborough Examiner

Petes player great role model

On Saturday night, my colleague, my nephews and I drove up to Barrie to see your Peterborough Petes play. And even if it wasn’t their best game, there were no people prouder to watch your players than we were.

A couple of years ago, my niece was very sick with Lyme disease. There was no treatment protocol in the province at the time and my brother had to take her to Connecticut to a specialist. For one of those trips, my nephews stayed with me and Ethan, the elder, had his birthday that weekend. The only thing I had to do was make sure I remembered to take him to his hockey practice early Sunday morning.

I wanted to make it a special day for Ethan, so I asked one of my students if his brother was still in touch with Dany Nikandrov, and would they pass a message along to him. The very next day, I came into my music room to find Dany swivelling in my teacher’s chair. “Hey, Mrs. Silver, what’s up? I heard you wanted to talk to me.” So I told him about my nephew and his hockey practice.

At the time, Dany was playing for the Sarnia Sting, but he was there bright and early on Sunday morning at the rink. He brought the kids doughnuts for after practice, signed their sticks, took pictures with them and more importantly, ran some drills and some plays during their practice. It was one of the most exciting practices the kids ever had and it made Ethan’s birthday really special. The thing about Dany is, he’s generous and all heart.

As we watched the game unfold on Saturday night, we couldn’t help but notice how often he acted as a “play-maker” making scoring opportunities for the other players. It doesn’t matter how many points he earns individually. This is the kind of role model I would want for my own children, nieces, nephews and my students.

Carla Silver

Richmond Hill

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