{"id":422256,"date":"2026-01-22T20:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/422256\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:36:15","slug":"young-cancer-survivor-from-alexandria-celebrated-new-years-with-surprise-caps-tickets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/422256\/","title":{"rendered":"Young cancer survivor from Alexandria celebrated New Year\u2019s with surprise Caps tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sutton Bullard (bottom left) with a friend and family at Washington Capitals game on New Year\u2019s Eve (courtesy of Jolie Berman)<\/p>\n

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Sutton Bullard smiles for the camera at Washington Capitals game on New Year\u2019s Eve (courtesy of Jolie Berman)<\/p>\n

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Sutton Bullard poses with a \u201cHappy New Year\u201d sign during a Washington Capitals game on New Year\u2019s Eve (courtesy of Jolie Berman)<\/p>\n

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Sutton Bullard is surprised with Washington Capitals tickets for New Year\u2019s Eve (courtesy of Jolie Berman) <\/p>\n

A young Caps fan<\/a> and cancer survivor from Alexandria rang in the new year with surprise tickets to see the team and reunite with her favorite player earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Sutton Bullard, 7, spent New Year\u2019s Eve with her family watching the Caps defeat the New York Rangers, and later reuniting with goaltender Logan Thompson. It was the end of an eventful year for Sutton, who in November celebrated the end of her chemotherapy with a bell-ringing ceremony<\/a>, in which Thompson had paid a surprise visit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The tickets were sent by the team\u2019s coffee and donut partner, Dunkin\u2019, along with a \u201cswag box\u201d filled with gift cards, sunglasses and other memorabilia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it was fantastic,\u201d Sutton\u2019s mother, Michelle Cullum, told ALXnow. \u201cSutton had a great time. She was able to bring her best friend, a family friend that lives down the street from us, who really helped us out while Sutton was going through all of her treatment \u2026 it just became a really cool moment of starting off 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sutton celebrated 800 days of treatment for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in November, one year after she met Thompson during the Caps\u2019 Hockey Fights Cancer skate<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

The two were reunited at Children\u2019s National Hospital when Thompson showed up to Sutton\u2019s bell-ringing ceremony with a signed Hockey Fights Cancer jersey. In NBC News footage<\/a> of the ceremony, Sutton recognizes him immediately and runs to give him a big hug.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, Sutton decided she wanted to get Logan a gift,\u201d Cullum said. \u201cWe put together an ornament, like this metal ornament that had a picture of the two of them from her bell-ringing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sutton was able to deliver that gift as the family reunited with Thompson after the game. It was a special night for the player, as well, who had just been named<\/a> to the Canadian Olympic team.<\/p>\n

Cullum said it was a \u201creally neat moment\u201d for the pair.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was there for her when she had her bell-ringing,\u201d Cullum said. \u201cCoincidentally \u2026 she got to be there for his big moment of making the Olympic team. It was such a cool event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sutton Bullard (bottom left) with a friend and family at Washington Capitals game on New Year\u2019s Eve (courtesy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5114],"tags":[46524,2183,191,5,3212,49625,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":["post-422256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-capitals","tag-around-town","tag-cancer","tag-capitals","tag-hockey","tag-kids","tag-new-years","tag-nhl","tag-washington","tag-washington-capitals","tag-washingtoncapitals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115940674493756866","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}