<\/p>\n
I’ve been doing feature stories for The Last Word for about five years now. I guess you could say I go on a couple of fun field trips every week. Today, I thought I would do a story on an actual field trip by school students. It’s something local kids have enjoyed for years.<\/p>\n
This is a field trip that never was possible when I was a kid. I\u2019m joining 3,900 students that are taking a break from school to attend a matinee hockey game at Erie Insurance Arena. The Erie Otters are playing the Guelph Storm. The arena is filled. The place is rocking!<\/p>\n
\u201cLet’s Go Otters!,” the crowd yells in unison.<\/p>\n
This is the twelfth year that the Otters have hosted school kids for a matinee game. The schools pay ten dollars for each student’s ticket which includes lunch. 3,900 hot dogs are being served today. Why do the Otters host this game every year? They want to introduce hockey to young people.<\/p>\n
“Learn hockey. See hockey,\u201d says R.J. Neidzwiecki, the Group Sales Manager for the Otters. \u201cSome kids might not even been able to attend a game before.”<\/p>\n
This field trip is a learning experience for some kids. Nicole Nies teaches Erie History to her Fairview High School students. That includes the history of hockey in Erie.<\/p>\n
“They were very excited to come out and support the local team and seeing what we’ve been learning about in class,\u201d says Ms. Nies.<\/p>\n
The chant continues, “Let’s go Otters!\u201d<\/p>\n
On the other side of the arena is Ms. Friend’s fifth grade class from Perry Elementary in Erie. They’re just having a fun day together.<\/p>\n
“I do enjoy hockey games,\u201d says Christian Guevara, one of the fifth graders. \u201cI enjoy every moment hanging out with my friends.”<\/p>\n
Sitting beside Christian is his classmate, Zekiah Smith. He\u2019s also having a great time.<\/p>\n
“I really enjoy seeing the players and everything,\u201d says Zekiah. \u201cIt’s really awesome and it’s great to come here. This is my first time here and I’m having a really great time with my class and my friends.”<\/p>\n
It’s a nostalgic day in the press box. Otters\u2019 play-by-play announcer Trevor Kubeja is remembering 2013 and the very first field trip hosted by the team. He was in the sixth grade.<\/p>\n
“This is the best possible field trip,\u201d says Trevor. \u201cTo be able to be with your buddies and come out to a hockey game and enjoy a day away from school. There’s so many great memories.”<\/p>\n
The Otters score! The goal scorer, Michael Dec, gives this young crowd something extra to remember. The 6-7 hand gesture! I’m having fun! Time to sit down, unwrap my hot dog, and enjoy the rest of the game.<\/p>\n
There’s a lot of hard work that goes into hosting the student field trip including directing traffic and finding parking spaces for all the school buses. However, the Otters say it’s all worth it to see thousands of smiling young faces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ve been doing feature stories for The Last Word for about five years now. I guess you could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,22748,137,17019,20982,52510,52508,15810,52509,15811],"class_list":{"0":"post-109555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-erie","9":"tag-erie-headlines","10":"tag-erie-insurance-arena","11":"tag-erie-news","12":"tag-erie-otters","13":"tag-field-trip","14":"tag-field-trip-memories","15":"tag-hockey-game","16":"tag-john-last","17":"tag-school-students","18":"tag-the-last-word"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}