Sweet story:
Canucks' Hodgson hosts family, Grade 1 teacher- Hodgson brings his Grade 1 teacher to ACC
By JIM JAMIESON, The Province December 22, 2011
Likely none was more surprised to get a ticket than his Grade 1 teacher, Laraine Forgrave, who taught Hodgson at the Victoria Street Elementary School in Haliburton, Ont.
It seems Hodgson, like a lot of six-year-old Canadian boys, claimed he was going to play in the NHL when he grew up. But Forgrave was the only teacher who took his dream at face value – and Hodgson never forgot it.
“It's something that always sticks with you,” Hodgson said before the Canucks took on the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday. “She was so different than all the other teachers that I had. I was in Grade 1 and everything I did was about hockey – all my journals, any of the stories I had to make up – it all related to hockey. She was pretty special. Other teaches always said, 'You've got to find something else besides hockey, you've got to have Plan B. Nobody makes the NHL, you've got to be realistic.'
“She was totally different. I had to miss half a day of school in Grade 1 to play in an away tournament and she said, 'It's fine, just get me a ticket when you get to the NHL.'”
Hodgson moved with his family to Markham when he was eight, but Forgrave sent him congratulatory letters when he was drafted by the Canucks in 2008 and when he won a gold medal with Team Canada at the world juniors in 2009.
“Two weeks before I went to Toronto I called and her daughter picked up,” said Hodgson. “I don't think she believed me when I told her who it was.”
Forgrave, now retired, said being invited to the game and meeting her former student again was an experience she won't forget.
"Honestly, I was just blown away and felt pretty special and humbled," Forgrave told the Haliburton County Echo. "Seeing him play his dream, it was just an experience in [my] life that I'll never forget."
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Canucks' Hodgson hosts family, Grade 1 teacher