First of all, thank YOU for reading these words. I wanted to set up this page to explain just a smidge of what you encountered this morning.
My introduction to the Olympic View Arena happened at a Try Hockey For Free event hosted by Seattle Junior back in 2020 when my kids were six and four years old. Growing up in Atlanta, GA, I didn’t do any ice hockey, but I loved to rollerskate. Fast forward 30 years. I saw a sign on the side of the road advertising the event so I decided it would be a fun thing for a Saturday morning with the kids. The moment I walked in the front door and was greeted by Lisa and Marty and the hubbub of suiting people up, I knew I’d found something intriguing. 20 minutes later when my kids were out there on the ice and adult men and teenagers I’d never seen were gently passing them what appeared to be dog toys with such kindness and gentle good nature, coupled with Coach Jerry’s infectious love of sharing hockey with the youth, and I was literally in tears. It was the most beautiful moment I’d experienced in a decade, and what I often tell people was “the first time someone was nice to me” in the seven years I’d been in Seattle. That’s not really a hyperbole either - this was people going out of their way to share something they love with patience and welcoming, and it truly was a first.
Here we are six years later and I’m opening a cafe in the building. I’ve been working in coffee for 15 years. I love coffee and I love chatting so it’s a natural fit. What you drank today is coffee I roasted in partnership with Chocolati cafes in Seattle, where I have worked for the last twelve years and will continue to work. Long story short, the opportunity to offer you coffee this morning, on a try hockey for free Saturday, is such a wonderful way to connect a circle of my life together, and I couldn’t be happier than to donate your monetary gratuities to Seattle Junior as a great privilege of offering my thanks back to them for opening a door in my life that has led to the most wonderful relationships I have outside of work and family. I’ll leave you with that for now and hope to see you again. Fingers crossed that you also witnessed my kids out there treating yours with the same enthusiasm and encouragement the volunteers gave them when they started their hockey journeys here six years ago. For those who fall in love with it like we did, I’ll see you around… a lot. I’m so grateful I can share in the magic here. Not everyone does it like Seattle Junior, and I consider my “luck”/”fate”/”destiny” outstandingly good to be typing these words.
Niklaus Aauroraa
BAR DOWN
