Bruins mascot makes pit stop at Rundlett Middle School

Above: Blades, the mascot of the Boston Bruins, holds up the sign he made for Jessica Parent’s sixth grade class at Rundlett Middle School as student Owen Deflorio looks at it on Friday. Below: The winning door design that brought Blades’ visit to town. For more photos from the event, visit concordmonitor.com. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff photographs
Rundlett Middle School teacher Jessica Parent with the Bruins mascot, Blades, near the door that they designed on Friday morning, April 21, 2023. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
Rundlett student Eldyn Riley gets his photo taken with Bruins mascot Blades on Friday, April 21, 2023 in front of the door the advisory board made for the contest. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
Bruins mascot, Blades, holds up the sign he made for Jessica Parent’s sixth-grade class at Rundlett Middle School as student Owen Deflorio looks on Friday, April 21, 2023. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
Rundlett Middle School teacher Jessica Parent and her sixth grade advisory students stand with the Bruins mascot, Blades, near the door that they designed on Friday morning, April 21, 2023. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
The door Rundlett Middle School teacher Jessica Parent and her sixth grade advisory students they designed on Friday morning, April 21, 2023. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

Monitor staff

Published: 4/21/2023 1:47:28 PM

Modified: 4/21/2023 1:45:37 PM

CONCORD – Rundlett Middle School teacher Jessica Parent and her sixth grade advisory students participated in the school’s door decorating competition, covering it in a Boston Bruins theme. They didn’t win the contest.

Then Parent received an email about Bruins Spirit Day. She submitted a picture of the door her students decorated.

“I forgot about it, and then Monday of this week, I got a email saying that I won,” Parent said. “My kids were just ecstatic like, ‘This is better than winning for school. This is amazing!’ ”

Their reward? A visit from the Bruins’ mascot, Blades, and Bruins posters for the students.

This comes as the Bruins take on the Florida Panthers in the first round of the NHL’s Eastern Conference playoffs, after their record-setting 2022-23 regular season.

This group of about 12 students meets with Parent every morning before school, catching up on what they all have going on at home and at school.

“They’re really such a great group of kids,” she said.

They’re also quite artistic.

“It took us a while to get an idea,” Parent said. “And finally when we got the idea, we put it together like just at the last minute and it came out phenomenal.”

Geoff Forester contributed reporting for this story.

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ERIC RYNSTON-LOBEL is a sports reporter for the Monitor. He graduated from Northwestern University in June 2022 with a degree in journalism and spent his last two years as sports director for the campus radio station, WNUR, leading coverage for nine different sports. A New York native, he's a diehard Yankees and Giants fan much to the displeasure of most of the newsroom.