The Owners' Manual | Issue 20 | Winter 2021

When I went to Bryant University, we usually had a couple celebrity guest lecturers a year and in 2013, Olympic gymnast, Shawn Johnson was scheduled to come and speak. Unfortunately, my volleyball team had a game the same night as her program, so we all had to miss it. After warmups we went up to our locker room to change into our jerseys and our coach walks in with Shawn Johnson! She was able to get her right after her program, and we ended up having a pep talk from an Olympic medalist. She was incredibly sweet and very supportive and talked about how winning a silver medal was actually one of her proudest moments because she realized that instead of trying to please everyone, she should just be the best that she could be.

It was definitely an amazing way to get ready for the game!

JocelynTaylor, Meriden

I have some others, but this is probably the best one as I was hockey player at the time, love the Boston Bruins and Bobby Orr while he was playing. When I was a freshman in high school, I won the Bobby Orr Sportsmanship award.There was an awards dinner and I met Bobby Orr as he hosted the event.That year I played on five hockey teams and always jumped in a game if a goalie was needed, usually in the “House League”. Quite often this was after I already practiced or played a game. I was 15 years old and sometimes played goal for even the pee-wee level.

Mike Moonan, Rhode Island