Another special delivery

The Pens have a long tradition of personally hand delivering tickets to season ticket holders, which is scheduled prior to training camp. This year, the Pens added another opportunity to deliver a few lucky fans their season tickets before hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena.

The team held a weeklong promotion earlier this month, where anyone who bought a new season ticket plan got entered in a drawing to have them presented by a Pens player prior to Saturday's puck drop. A random drawing was held to select a pair of existing season ticket holders to have their tickets hand-delivered as well.
Frank and Margie Cook, who purchased a plan as part of the promotion, and Steve and Amy Stepson, who have been season ticket holders for ten years, got the chance to meet defenseman Olli Maatta - who brought them their tickets outside of the Pens locker room.
"It's great," Margie said. "These are things that you don't expect. When it happens to you, you really feel honored and respected and that they really want your support."

For the Cooks, the experience was an "A-plus," according to Margie. The couple became Pens fans in 2005 after their son-in-law inquired about watching a game when visiting their home. Margie joined her son-in-law in watching the Pens on television and says, "The rest is history."
The Stepsons were especially ecstatic to see Maatta walk towards them. That's because as part of one of their bucket list items, the couple took a cruise across the Baltic Sea this past summer. One of the stops was in Helsinki, Finland.
"We didn't know which player it would be," Amy said. "But we hoped it would be a player where we could say, 'Hey, I was in your country this summer!'"

The Stepsons have appreciated the perks of being season ticket holders, like taking pictures with the Stanley Cup during each of the last three championships. But this was an especially rewarding experience for the two of them, and they were thrilled that the Penguins organization took the time to show their appreciation for their support with such a meaningful act.
"It's great," Amy said. "It shows you that you are appreciated. Every year we get a Christmas present from them, they always go the extra mile. It's just super classy of the organization. We've enjoyed being part of it for the last 10 years."