By Alison Taylor
A lucky lottery ticket, bought in Pemberton for $5, is giving a
nine-year-old local hockey player the opportunity of a lifetime.
In less than two weeks Pemberton’s Jacob Field is heading to
Vancouver to spend to the day with Wayne Gretzky.
To say this young hockey player, who plays Atom House league in
Whistler, is excited to hang out with the best hockey player in history is
putting it mildly; he is counting down the days in his journal and his
autobiography of Gretzky is getting packed in his overnight bag in the hopes
“The Great One” will sign it.
His dad Murray, who plays for the Marmots in the adult
recreation league and referees in the league too, is also invited. Both father and
son have been playing the game since they were five years old.
The thing Murray Field is looking forward to the most, however,
is “seeing the look on my son’s face.”
And maybe they’ll get a few hockey tips too, he laughs.
Jacob’s mom Tricia Field bought the lucky lottery ticket in the
summer. When the Fields scratched it they found out they had won $2,010… and
the chance to spend a day with Gretzky.
They found out in November that they had won that too.
Tricia said she bought the ticket because the money went to
support amateur sport in B.C. The tickets are part of a suite of lottery games
offered by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation in celebration of the 2010
Winter Games. The games are expected to generate an estimated $20 million for
amateur sport in B.C. over the next six years.
With two kids heavily involved in sports, including hockey,
soccer and K1 ski racing, the lottery ticket was a natural choice.
This father and son team don’t know what’s waiting for them on
Dec. 12. They are staying at the Pan Pacific in Vancouver and having breakfast
with Gretzky at 7:30 a.m. They are also getting fitted for skates. The day ends
at 11 p.m. It just so happens that Gretzky’s team, the Phoenix Coyotes, are
playing the Canucks that night.
Whatever happens, Field said he hopes Jacob can learn a thing
or two from the sports legend.
“It’s not all about making the NHL,” said Field. “I think it’s
about playing the game and enjoying it. That’s the way I’ve always thought of
it.”
And who better to teach him that, he added, than Wayne Gretzky.
