I grew up in New Jersey. When I was 12, I took a painting class through a local community program. I don’t remember anything about the class except that we had to choose a subject for a portrait. Around the same time, there was a full page in the Star Ledger featuring the team portraits of the Devils. More or less at random, I picked the photo of then-newbie Martin Brodeur as my subject. And that was where my love affair with hockey began.
By the time I graduated from college, I’d been lucky enough to see my beloved Devils win three Stanley Cups. (And I’m not gonna lie – I cried every damn time.) When I moved to Boston, I was so excited to be so close to an arena, to be able to see hockey regularly. (Up until recently, the Devils played at the Meadowlands, which is sort of in the middle of nowhere in northern New Jersey.) For nearly a decade, the Bruins have been my adopted team.
The Stanley Cup is, without a doubt, THE prize in sports. Nothing else compares. And it’s here. In Boston. I was roughly 15 people back, in front of the Boston Public Library, when Zdeno Chara held up the Cup on his duck boat. I realized then that I’d never been that close to the Cup before, and it was probably the closest I would ever get.
So I decided to go on a mission. Before the 2011 – 2012 season starts on Thursday, October 6th, I want to meet the Stanley Cup. Sure, I could wait for a public event (which may or may not happen), if the Cup goes on tour after all the players have had their turn. I could stalk Twitter and see if @WheresTheCup can get me some good info. But where’s the challenge in that? :)
As of June 24th, I have 821 followers on Twitter. I’ve got a bunch of friends on Facebook, too. So I’m going to do a little experiment.
I want to see how powerful my social networks really are. I’m going to tweet and post to both networks every few days, asking people to help me meet Stanley and get a picture with it, and to retweet/share my quest. I’m curious to see if, in a sort of six-degrees-of-separation kind of way, I can get to my goal. I’m tagging my posts with #MeetStanley.
Can you help me meet Stanley?
UPDATE: 10/15/11
Well, this experiment didn’t quite go as planned. Things got crazy this summer, and I always seemed to be one step behind Stanley. I came close multiple times, but didn’t know it until after the fact. So no Stanley for me, which I find sad. But it’s hockey season, so I won’t be too sad for long. :)художник на икониИкони на светци
