DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my mom and dad, Noreen Di Palma and Ronald
Birdgenaw. It is also dedicated to all the hard-working and invested parents of
Verdun, past, present, and future. Those parents, as mine did, tirelessly support
their kids through school, sports, music, dance, and art, and continue to
be there for them. You know that you are one of them.
The book is dedicated as well to the amazing extended family, teachers, and
mentors that I had the great privilege of being shaped by while growing up in
my big little hometown of Verdun. And it is dedicated to the kind, the caring,
and the fearless across all the provinces and territories who forever brave the
crazy cold of our Canadian winters to get out there at night and hose down a
patch of this great land to make a rink—no matter how big or how small—
for their children to play on! What a place to grow up and what a place to
call our home! How lucky we are! Merci.
Lastly, this book is dedicated to the Humboldt Broncos hockey
team of 2018 and to the entire city of Humboldt, Saskatchewan.