Ithaca, N.Y. -- You watch Dustin Brown, his wife Nicole, his children and friends eating frozen yogurt out of the Stanley Cup and you might think, well, that's quaint, but in the end it's just a big tin mug, right?

What's the big deal?

Ha.

We are here to tell you that whether it is full of frozen yogurt or beer or sporting a fireman's helmet, as it was earlier on this late July Saturday in Brown's hometown of Ithaca, N.Y., there remains something far more mystical about the Stanley Cup's presence than just a familiar piece of hardware easily recognizable from television.

In something like 16 hours, this well-traveled symbol of hockey's greatest accomplishment will play a central role in reminding us of the power of friendship, the strength of family and the ability to forge something positive from unspeakable tragedy.

We have seen that power firsthand, have seen its binding force in community after community.

Don't believe us?

Smart Yogurt, a new business venture operated by Nicole's brother Matt Poole, is crowded with family and friends, well-wishers and the curious. The Cup arrived late in the afternoon after a private visit to a local cemetery, where close family members visit the grave of Nicole's cousin Christopher Bordoni.

Bordoni, a corporal in the Marines, was severely injured in a suicide bombing while serving in Afghanistan in mid-January. He died the first week of April. He was just 21. Media reports described hundreds of people lining the route from the airport where Bordoni's casket landed to the local funeral home.

One of the first orders of business when Brown and his wife began planning his day with the Stanley Cup following the Los Angeles Kings' Stanley Cup victory was to ensure that they included a component that would not only remember Nicole's cousin, but do something more.

After selling pictures of Brown and raffle tickets for a chance to pose with Brown and the Cup and collecting donations from the literally thousands of people who would come in contact with the Brown Cup odyssey, the family had raised in excess of $15,000 for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, a charity that helps wounded members of the U.S. armed forces with a host of financial needs.

"It was a perfect fit for us," Nicole told ESPN.com.

Not long after the yogurt stop, the Cup is on the ice at the local community-built arena where Brown played some of his minor hockey before heading to Guelph of the Ontario Hockey League as a 15-year-old. Bordoni's brother Casey, a part-owner of the yogurt shop, talked about the emotions the day produced.

"It's putting the Cup to an even better use," Casey said. "I know Chris is watching and he's smiling. It's hard but at the same time you know Chris is being honored because of things like this."

It's not the first time the Cup has been to Ithaca. Joe Nieuwendyk, a star with Cornell's powerful hockey team, brought the Cup to Ithaca after winning with the Dallas Stars in 1999.

He brought it to local burger hangout Glenwood Pines, and a picture behind the bar captures that moment. A few weeks ago, Brown and his wife ran into the now-Stars' general manager at the same location.

Back in the day Brown and his family would make the short trip from Cass Park Arena to the Glenwood for some comfort food after an icy practice or game. The video games in the restaurant remain unchanged from those days, Brown's older brother, Brandon, something of a skee ball legend, confirmed. So on Brown's day with the Cup, it returned to the locally famous restaurant that has a commanding view of Lake Cayuga.

If Nieuwendyk paid homage to his collegiate roots by bringing the Cup to Ithaca -- and the Hall of Famer still has ties to the community -- Brown's relationship is much different.

He is the first Ithaca native to play in the NHL, and ergo the first Ithaca native to win the Stanley Cup.

It is not a subtle distinction.

Not to take anything away from Nieuwendyk or any of the other Cornell players who have gone on to professional success, but Brown is from the town, and that matters.

This feeling is borne out by the crowd that descends on the football field at the local high school to begin Brown's day with the Cup. An accomplished lacrosse player as a youngster, Brown played on this field, although he noted it was just plain grass then, not the impressive artificial surface that now adorns the field.

His wife, brother and sister attended the high school, and even though the skies are foreboding and at times open to issue torrents of rain, some 2,000 people are lined up patiently for a chance for a picture of the Cup.

For those who don't get a chance during the three-hour event, Brown parades past the crowded metal grandstands as people reach out to congratulate him and to touch the trophy.

Brown met his future wife at a high school athletic competition. She was 16, and he was 15. A few months later he would head north to play hockey in the Ontario Hockey League.

Nicole was a hockey player, too, and one of her teammates was dating one of Brown's friends.

They have been together ever since and last winter bought a home just outside Ithaca where they will spend their summers.

Among the guests at Brown's visit are Paul Osborne and his family from Guelph. Brown went to stay with the Osbornes as a shy 15-year-old to play his first of three OHL seasons before making the jump straight from junior hockey to the Kings after they made him the 13th overall pick in the 2003 entry draft.

"He was extremely shy, very shy," Osborne said.

So much so that when Osborne knew there was a team social gathering, like a movie night, he would call the team's captain and tell him to come to pick up Brown at the house, otherwise the youngster from Ithaca was just as likely to stay in.

In many ways Brown became like a fourth child to the Osbornes. When Nicole would come and visit, Osborne would often send his youngest daughter down to the basement just to keep an eye on things.

Now their daughter is 14, a year younger than when Brown first walked through their door, and Brown is a doting father himself.

"They just make such a great team together," Osborne said of Dustin and Nicole Brown.

Striding around Bredbenner Field with her hood pulled over her head to keep away the at times driving rain, Nicole appears to be a woman on a mission -- a good one, but a mission nonetheless.

Her wedding to Brown was nothing compared to this, she confides while taking a brief break in the action.

"This is way harder," she said with a smile.

Most of the details for the Cup visit have come together in the past three weeks, while she had months to prepare for her wedding.

"Plus, I had a...