Regina Pats send encouraging note to frustrated toddler learning to skate

The Regina Pats have their newest fan for life, and he's just three years old. 

Benson Broda was recently learning to skate in the hopes of becoming a Regina Pat someday, just like his favourite player and idol, Sam Steel. 

But those hopes were dashed, the toddler thought, when he kept falling down at skating lessons. 

"I think in his head he just thought he should be able to go out and play hockey," said his mother Krista Broda in an interview on CBC Radio's Afternoon Edition. 

So Mom put on her thinking cap and reached out for a little inspiration from the team. She sent an email to the Pats, asking for them to give her son a little encouragement. 

"I thought it was kind of a long shot, but there's no harm in asking I guess," she said. 

Broda thought her request was all but forgotten, but then three weeks after sending the email she got a card in the mail — handwritten and autographed by Sam Steel himself. 

It turns out a note from "Super Sam", as Benson calls him, was all the encouragement he needed. 

"He was very excited and he said he's going to light it up at his lessons this week," Krista Broda said. 

Since then Benson has gotten back on the ice for practice and his mom said he's actually enjoying it, despite a few falls now and then. 

"I think he understands now that you have to start somewhere and it's going to take some time," Broda said. 

She said the note meant the world to her son, but also to her. 

"Role models are kind of few and far between these days so it's really nice to see that someone's still down to earth," she said.