Windsor's own tale of the Ring

BY JENNIFER HOEGG

NovaNewsNow.com

A clogged toilet at Windsor Exhibition Arena turned out to be a lucky break for one young woman.

In 2003, Jane Knowles, a Windsor-area forward with the Nova Scotia Canada Games hockey team, lost her Canada Games souvenir ring in the arena’s women’s bathroom. This fall, the ring turned up … in an unlikely place.

Glenn Wentzell, Arena Manager, says, “one toilet in the men’s room, someone put an apple in the toilet and it wouldn’t flush. Chuck (Greaves) took it up to see what was clogging it.”

Along with the apple, Greaves found a dime, a quarter and a ring. “I said, ‘who would throw something like that in the toilet.’ I saw Team Nova Scotia 2003 in the ring and the number 18. It came to me that Jane Knowles had lost a ring and I knew she wore a high number in the teens. I called her father and asked what number Jane wore.”

Brian Knowles said he was surprised and thrilled when Wentzell called. “I was quite surprised. I knew exactly what Glenn was talking about.”

Brian drove right to the rink and picked up the ring. He and Jane’s mother, Barb Knowles, took it to their daughter in Halifax.

Jane says, “It was a shock. It was four years ago, so I wasn’t ever expecting to see it again. I had almost forgotten about it, to be honest.”

Luckily, arena staff had not. “Chucky cleaned it up and he didn’t know what it was; it was a ring and it was gold. I don’t think he was working here at the time (the ring was lost) so he wouldn’t know what the ring meant,” Wentzell said.

More than a piece of jewelry

“I was really protective of it,” Jane said. “I wouldn’t wash my hands with it on, so I took it off and put it on the sink, forgot about it and left.”

More than a piece of jewelry, the ring was a reminder of the Canada Games experience, she says. “Canada Games was amazing. It was by far one of my favourite experiences. It was a short period of time, but it was like you were in your own little world. It was great.”

The third-year Dalhousie player remembers clearly how she felt when she realized the ring was gone. “I was devastated. I only had it for about four months when I lost it. It wasn’t a fun night, that’s for sure.”

Brian and Barb are impressed with Wentzell’s and Greaves’s ring rescue efforts. “It was pretty awesome for them to even bother to look at it. It says something for the town to have people like that working for them.”

The fact it was Wentzell who remembered Jane’s story is fitting, Barb says. “She grew up in the rink here, always played hockey here and Glenn watched her all along. Where else could this happen but in a small town?”

Jane hasn’t had a chance to thank Wentzell in person yet, but she would like to tell him, “thanks for remembering. Even if it was found, I wasn’t expecting anyone to remember it was mine.”

One question remains, though: how did the little ring move from the women’s sink to the men’s toilet over four years?

Wentzell’s baffled. “I don’t know what or how it happened. It’s really funny that it didn’t just get flushed away. It wasn’t a big, heavy ring and I don’t know how it didn’t go through the drain. It just amazes me. I have no idea how it would get there.”

Jane said, “it’s a little dinged up, but the inscription is still readable. It’s not bad at all. I’m just glad I got it back!"