I just thought you all might like hearing about this because I couldn't wait to tell everyone....

As a Career Counselor in the Arizona Army National Guard. it is one of my tasks to do Community relations events around the valley. I organized and planned one such event last night in cooperation with the Phoenix Coyotes. Myself along with 14 other soldiers and family members set up a static display on the main concorse where we set up large color posters dedicated to several Arizona Army National Guard units getting ready to deploy in the next month to Iraq and Afganistan. We handed out free items and had a great evening getting community support and talking with the people. We gathered close to several thousand signatures making this an outstanding way to show our deploying troops people still support them.

Well once the game was winding down we were asked if we would like to go down and have th Coyotes player sign the posters as well. This was truly a great offer and many in our group jumped at the chance to do this. We went down and hung up our poster and the team came out of the locker room and signed them. We got to spend alot of time with Asst. Coach Barry Smith, Mike Ricci, Curtis Joseph and many others. If this wasnt one best oportunities one could recieve. Wayne Gretzky came out and spent like a 1/2 hour with us taking and taking pictures, he even gave us a tour of the locker room, and behind the scenes area of the Phoenix Coyotes. He signed a great message to our troops and then we were off. WOW it was a great event and one we wont soon forget.

Way cool!

Awesome story Mike, and one you deserve to tell . Keep those autographs, you may need to Ebay them to raise money for his wifes bond.. I'm sure he'd be even more grateful then .

Very cool.