Devante Smith-Pelly Meets Kids Who Wear His Jersey At School

Serendipity is how one may describe the events that took place on Thursday at Aiton Elementary School.

Caps forward Devante Smith-Pelly had been looking for a way to get involved in the community outside of the events the team participates in when the Children's Charities Foundation's Coats for Kids program reached out to the Caps community relations department looking for a little help.
Little did DSP know how everything would come full circle when he showed up at Aiton to distribute coats to the elementary school students.
To fully understand the situation, we have to take it back to the playoffs last year and introduce Alejandro Diasgranados, a second through third grade teacher at Aiton Elementary.
Diasgranados first became a Caps fan when he attended a game and former Caps winger Joel Ward tossed him a puck. He was hooked.
As soon as Devante Smith-Pelly became a Cap two years ago, Diasgranados knew he found another player to be a fan of decided he want to share his fandom for hockey and DSP with his students.

"He [Ward] inspired me to be a Caps fan and I've brought that to my students," said Diasgranados. "I keep his [Smith-Pelly] jersey in the classroom and the kids get to wear it when they're the highest reader in the class for that week."
Fast forward to last year's Stanley Cup Playoff run: Disgranados showed highlights after each game in his classroom and encouraged his students to write letters to Devante to try and engage with him.
"It's just so good for them to see a player who is so connected to the community, a player who looks like them," he said. "We have so many Devantes in our class."
Diasgranados started direct messaging DSP on Instagram sharing his videos of his students watching his highlights during the playoff run. DSP saw the messages, but of course was a little preoccupied with the task at hand.
That brings us to Dec. 20 when unknowingly, Devante went to distribute coats to kids at the same school that the teacher messaging him on Instagram works. The kids and Diasgranados had no idea either.
"The kids were completely floored. I had no idea, I found out when I showed up at the door today," said Diasgranados.
It was a meeting that was meant to happen -- serendipity.
When the kids ran into the gym to receive their coats that were being donated to them, they immediately saw Devante and started chanting 'DSP! DSP!' which their teacher taught them earlier in the year.

Not only did the kids meet one of their heroes by chance yesterday, but they also received a brand new coat, which may sound simple but to these underprivileged kids, it makes a difference.
"It's probably one of the best gifts they'll receive this Christmas season," their teacher said. "A lot of these kids may not have coats and they walk to school every day."