Meet Hayden. He's from Fort Mac and currently living in Airdrie with his mom, dad and dog. During a conversation with Hayden's mom, a gentleman helping them get moved into their temporary accomodations found out that Hayden is a huge Flames fan. He asked if anyone could find Hayden a jersey and I asked here.
Bossy22 came through and I dropped the jersey off about an hour ago. Hayden loved it and he says thank you very very much. He plays minor hockey and figures the jersey will fit over his equipment pretty well.
(permission granted from Hayden's mom to take and post his picture here)
Talked with Hayden's mom for a bit. She was at work downtown when the voluntary evacuation came in. She left work immediately, trying to get to Hayden's school to get him. Hayden's dad left camp to get to Fort Mac, trying to get to Hayden as well, at one point driving through an area on fire, to get to the school. It took Hayden's mom 2 hours to get to the school but both she and his dad got there to pick him up. Then they raced home to Abasand to try and collect a few things - they had less than 5 minutes to grab things. Hayden's mom told me as they raced into Hayden's room and tried to figure out what to grab, what swirled through her mind was that clothes weren't a big deal (though she grabbed a couple of things) because they were replaceable. However, Hayden's signed picture of Johnny Gaudreau, one of his favorite players, was grabbed immediately because d'uuuuuh.
They took a quick holiday to Florida last year (I think it was last year, I might be remembering wrong) and while there, found out that the Flames were going to be playing Tampa and were able to get tickets to see them play. Hayden is a big stats guy, according to his mom and while I was there, we discussed who the captains of all the teams were, based off the teams on the gift bag that I brought the jersey in. Needless to say, he had a better grasp on that than I did.
Hayden is the best little kid and I really enjoyed talking to him and his mom. I hope that he and his family are able to get back to Fort Mac eventually. They are originally from Nfld, and moved to Fort Mac 9 years ago - Hayden was born in Edmonton. They consider Fort Mac home so I hope they are able to rebuild - with their house being in Abasand, they assume they've lost everything but they got out and that's what matters, to them.
Hayden says "Thanks!!"
