It Takes a Village
You hear that saying a lot- it takes a village to raise kids. Well it also takes a village when you lose one of your kids. The village of your family, your friends, your co workers, your community- those are the people that put you back together when your world has been blown apart.
In these 2 1/2 years since Shane's death the community continues to show up for us. It was very clear that we are well supported by the attendance at our first Golf Tournament and our first fundraiser for the foundation. So many people that were there knew nothing about our why and were there to play some golf after being invited by a friend or coworker. I think it is safe to say that a lot more people learned about our boys and how we are trying our best to honor their bond. Here is a little more information from our tournament day.
Getting organized Saturday morning was not an easy task- we have made some notes for next year in hopes of perhaps a smoother flow. But these ladies, my sister Cindy, my sister in law Kristen the early risers and set up crew. And even more important that morning my sister brought me Dunkin! Kudos to both of them for also donating prizes to the auction.
My friend since elementary school- Lisa pitched in to help with the traffic throughout the day. Her son Cody had a team in the tournament that had 3 young men that went to school with Colin and Shane, Lisa's husband Bob and her Mom Anna came by to support us as well.
Another long time elementary school friend of mine, Julie Vassar had helped me earlier in the week put the swag bags together. Another vital part of my team is my neice Chelsea - my behind the scenes go to that makes me look good and helps me with th emany technical challenges that I struggle with. This is her team!
The very cool balloon art in the photo of my team was made by Air Events by Jen. Jen had a team in the mix and also donated a gift certificate to the Irish auction. It was folks like Jen that really made the day a success.
Demers Landscaping had a team and also sponsored a hole. Danny J. Haselton Electric had a team, sponsored a hole and a closest to the pin contest. These guys were just two of the people that stepped up to make the day a success. On the Demers team it was a family affair with uncles and nephews together and Danny had his son Nate, a classmate of Colin's, on his team along with friends and neighbors.
Another member of the Demers family- Paul was manning the food at the turn table with long time friend of the family Chris Ghiz. They spent the day from 8am to 2pm grillin hotdogs to fuel the golfers. The food on the turn was donated by City Line Foodservice. One of their sales people- Leann made it happen and we are certainly grateful.
I do not know how people eat hotdogs at 8am! Thank you to these two for all their hard work on Saturday.
We had another food crew that we have to thank as well
The Myer's Food Truck was on site to serve up some old Riff's North favorites to our golfers when they finished and to sell to some community members that came by to support us- or perhaps it was just to get the best parm garlic fries you can get. Rich and his team were sweating their asses off with the sun beating in on them as they fed 72+ hungry folks in record time. Then they drove away and headed to the next event- which I am pretty sure they were likely a bit tardy for. Rich Lyman- thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I did my best to stay close to the club house so I could interact with every person that had taken time out of their busy schedules to participate- and because I wanted to get team photos of everyone- I was 15 for 18. I am embarrassed to say I did not take a team picture of Mike's team The Shenanigans- note to self for next year- get a photographer!
I do want to share all of the teams photos and I wish that my relationship with my phone, google drive and this computer were in a better place. Maybe tomorrow they will play nicer and I can execute the rest of them for you- for now here are a couple more that did cooperate.
We were so lucky to have such a beautiful day - I have to say that this photo below is one of my favorites of the day- maybe it's just me but there is a cloud that looks like an angel wing- do you see it?
Come back tomorrow- hopefully I can post the rest of the teams I have and I will share the final scores as well.
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