VIP Paddington Bear in the Fort McMurray Oil Barons locker room.
In my spare time, when I’m not watching or writing about hockey, I do have an actual full time job. I work in Corporate Communications for a multinational company that has more than 17,000 employees.
One of my quests is to find ways to bring the employees together as one entity, even though we are far-flung from one another, in different time zones and on different continents.
That’s where Paddington Bear comes into the picture. Paddington is the hero of children’s stories written by a British gentleman. Paddington comes from “darkest Peru”, but ended up at Paddington Station in London, wearing a tag that said, “Please look after this bear.” This year, Paddington turned 50 years old and to honor this big occasion, we decided to send him all over the world to visit more than 100 different locations of our company. We were looking for employees to “take care of this bear.”
When word got out, the first offices to jump on the idea were the Canadian ones. They volunteered to foster Paddington, show him around their offices and have some fun. As it turns out, I wish I could have gone with him, because that little Bear has had more fun than could be imagined.
Of course, in Canada, he would be exposed to hockey. Quite a rough sport for a genteel little bear! But he quickly got the hang of it, just by watching. He met a junior team in Alberta and after the game, decided he might want to be a goalie someday. I think he’s got the build for it!
Paddington fits right in at the Saddledome in his stylish red raincoat.
Paddington got to attend a game in Calgary at the Saddledome. Fortunately he was dressed in red! The Flames had been in a little slump, but Paddington’s visit brought them out of it and they defeated the Leafs. Paddington admired Jarome Iginla and hoped to meet him, but that didn’t pan out. The Calgarians threatened to keep Paddington on for a few more games as a good luck charm, but he had to move along. He is on a schedule, you know.
Paddington Bear rockin' it at Rexall Place
Next stop, the house that Gretzky built – Rexall Place in Edmonton where Paddington did his part to fire up the crowd! He arrived “in cognito” hoping that no one would think he was a Flames fan just because he was wearing red.
His trips through Canada took him to a Tim Horton’s, where he politely asked for marmalade on his muffin. He visited Millennium Place, Canadian Tire and the Oil Sands Project. This new hockey fan will be worn out by the time he gets back to Houston from just the first leg of his trip as a goodwill ambassador.
But now we have another hockey fan in our ranks!
On the next part of his journey, he will visit offices in Europe, including Germany. I’m sure he will see more hockey there. He plans to return to his homeland of London for the holidays. Then onto Shanghai for Chinese New Year and when the weather gets a little nicer, he’ll be heading “down under” to Australia, then to the Middle East. The only place he won’t be going is the South Pole. I guess we will have to schedule his time in the Pittsburgh office during the hockey season so he can see those Penguins, anyway.
Those who have had visits from P. Bear have enjoyed him so much! In one office, they were getting flu shots on a day he was there. They included Paddington, since it is winter and he has a lot of traveling to do. They sent a picture of him with his little band-aid on his arm. He lent morale support to an employee’s daughter who was taking her driver’s test and he helped out at all the offices and jobsites.
See what a little bear can do to unite people?
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