Students and staff at Cowlishaw Elementary School were decked out in red and black on Thursday as the school welcomed members of the Chicago Blackhawks organization for a unique opportunity.
“The Chicago Blackhawks have shared with me that they’ve been looking to expand their community partnerships. And one place for them where they were really interested in expanding those partnerships was in schools. They want to really kind of give back and show their appreciation for staff and students. And so, they began to research schools in the Chicagoland area that they would potentially want to partner with. And Cowlishaw came up on their shortlist. So, we were one of four schools that they recently selected to partner with,” said Carlos Azcoitia, principal at Cowlishaw.
An activity filled day
The day was filled with Blackhawk-themed activities.
“We started this morning with a very high-energy pep rally where we had a special visit from Tommy Hawk, and the Blackhawks presented our school with an autographed jersey by the team players and did a great lesson for all of our students on teamwork. We’ll be running a hockey clinic all day, a 25-minute opportunity for each student to learn about the sport of hockey and have an opportunity to play with the sticks and with their peers in the gym,” said Azcoitia.
For some of the students, this was their first time ever getting the chance to play the sport.
“I’ve never played hockey before, but I think this would be like a good time to learn how to play hockey. I think hockey probably looks easy, but it’s probably hard once you’re playing it,” said Mariam Jirjees, a fifth grader at Cowlishaw.
Decoration Contest
Blackhawks representatives did a read-aloud for the kindergarten through second-grade classrooms. The school also held a contest in which each grade level decorated the hallways in Blackhawks fashion. The winning grade level will get a field trip to the Blackhawks practice facility for hockey lessons.
“We’re just having kind of fun with it. And we put some pictures about us and what we want to do when we grow up. And it’s pretty much just like we really try our best. If we win, it’s great. If we don’t. I guess well it was fun, the experience,” said Samuel Moscoso a fifth grader at Cowlishaw.
Go Hawks!
It was a day that members of the school will likely never forget.
“We are so grateful and so humbled. Grateful to the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation. Go Koalas and go Hawks,” said Azcoitia.
“I just want to say go Blackhawks,” said Samuel Moscoso. “Go Hawks,” said Jirjees.
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