NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers Dru Krebs and Brendan Lee pose with some young fans after reading to a class at the KidsPlay Preschool on Wednesday.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
After a morning of practise, a couple Medicine Hat Tigers were able to get in some reading.
Tigers Dru Krebs and Brendan Lee stopped in at the KidsPlay Preschool for a book reading session and a quick Q and A.
Both players took turns reading books picked out by the preschoolers, with a Clifford the Big Red Dog and a penguin information book the two choices of literature. Krebs was all smiles during the afternoon and was happy to take part.
“It’s fun to talk to the little kids, because it brings you back in a way,” Krebs said. “I see some books that I read when I was a little bit younger and it’s good to see their innocence and it’s really good to be around.”
Lee also shared a smile and was offering up as many fist bumps as he could handle from the strong preschoolers.
“It was obviously super special to go see these kids,” Lee said. “They were incredibly polite and super cute, so I had a smile on my face all the time.”
The duo split question answering duties, with the questions being facilitated from Tigers broadcaster and communications manager Gino De Paoli. He encouraged all the kids to follow the steps Krebs, Lee and all of the Tigers take: eating healthy, always practise and getting a good nights sleep.
They received questions about their favourite things to eat, how many goals they had scored this season and other important inquiries.
De Paoli says he enjoys whenever they can get out in the public, especially around kids, because they are what makes the Tigers what they are.
“It’s important for us as an organization to give back to the community as much as possible,” De Paoli said. “We haven’t been out much since COVID and we’re starting to slowly get back into schools. For this team to do stuff like this is really important for us and we’ve got some really good kids that have great attitudes that come in and do this.”
The Tigers have played floor hockey multiple times this season at Elm Street and Roos Glen schools and had made a previous visit to KidsPlay Preschool with captain Owen MacNeil and Dallon Melin on the reading duties.
Both Krebs and Lee were kind with their ratings off each other’s reading abilities. Lee gave Krebs an eight out of 10 while Krebs returned it with a 7.5/10 because of a couple stumbles Lee had with some names.
“He struggled with a few words but he pulled it together in the end,” Krebs joked.
De Paoli says if there are any public events that organizers would like the Tigers to make an appearance at, they are to reach him at gino@tigershockey.com.
“I can’t say enough about more school visits, the more we do, the better this community is going to be and we can show how much we actually care about everybody that’s in the surrounding area,” De Paoli said. “They are our future fans and I hope one kid some day will remember when Dru Krebs, a Washington Capitals pick, went and read to them. I think it’ll just go a long way.”
