Don’t Ever Put Down The Pen!

As of today, March 25th, 2008, we have raised $6964 in Scott’s honor as a direct result of your generosity and participation in the March 7th Glory O’ event at Mick’s. Sean, Suzy, Linda and the family thank everyone so very much for everything. It has been such a thrill to be able to help the Yellow Ribbon Fund so much!

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Blurry, dreamlike, exhilarating, heartwarming, hard driving cold rain. Those impressions come to mind now as I try to remember Friday night. Arrived at 7PM and the place was already crowded with Happy Hour leftovers, our friends and family started arriving soon after and many of those already there stayed on. Besides all our locals, we had friends there who drove or flew in from Atlanta, Boston and Long Island (we love you Lucy, Scott and Dewitt!) just to share and honor our Scott. A couple who were especially wonderful to meet, Beverly and Rainier, live just the other side of Dickerson from us. They lost their son Kirk in Fallujah, November 27^th, 2004. Kirk was a Corporal in the Marines. Our postmaster Joey, mentioned this event to them and they promised they would be there. Small town America works like that. Unknown neighbors before, now friends.

When’s the last time you heard an Irish pub full of people silent? Getting any crowd who are strangers to be quiet and listen for a few minutes is quite a feat, even more so at the tail end of Happy Hour but Marti made a rousing and impassioned introduction to a quickly silent crowd who cheered loudly for the cause at the end. She was just great and she held it together wonderfully. Coincidentally, after Marti had spoken, a man approached her and introduced himself. He told her he was a doctor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and after hearing her speak he ran home to get something because he thought she would like it. He handed her a green T-shirt with a big shamrock on it and emblazoned across the shamrock is “ARMY”. She held it all night.

The Staff of the Yellow Ribbon Fund spent the evening telling everyone who asked about the great work they do and taking donations. It was great to finally meet them in person. A good group of folks. WBAL-TV11 sent a crew and they filmed an interview with Marti that made the 11PM News. Rossnareen was fabulous, their music authentic and full of vibrant energy. Later, I had a great conversation with Tommy McCann about our lives, our kids, our wives, his music and his home in Ireland. My ignorance of my ancestral homeland was embarrassing and I promised to remedy that. There is something about the Irish attitude towards life that I find uplifting.

A word about Mick O’Shea’s…throughout the short planning and on the night of the event, the staff at Mick’s were fabulous. The owners, David and Stephanie Niehenke were there throughout the evening, the staff, Kelly in particular, were just incredible always with a smile even late into the evening when they must have been exhausted. There were others too, their names gone in the haze but a huge thank you to all of them! Did I mention the food is great? Especially the Guinness Steamed Jumbo Shrimp. Get them by the pound! If you can go there for St. Patrick’s on Monday this year do it, because the pub will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday for repairs…. If you were there, please drop them an email to let them know how much you appreciate what they did for Scott and the YRF.

Finally, we were out the door with only the band and bar-staff behind us. Good thing our hotel was only half a block and downhill at that. On the way, Marti noticed a homeless man laying against the wall in the rain under a pile of wet blankets. She approached him slowly and gave him five bucks, no doubt remembering how a 7 year old kid named Scott had onetime long ago made friends with a homeless man. In bed at 3AM, up again at 7AM, breakfasted and now driving home in the same hard driving cold rain, Marti says, “Hey, lets go to Frederick and look at antiques for a while.” You gotta love her.

I will add on the official totals and photos later this week, but David reports that after 8:30 the official start, and until closing at 2AM, there were 335 pints of Guinness poured (somehow I managed to stay just this side of stupid) and 217 heads officially on the cover charge. Going out the door we had raised nearly $3500 before the YRF reports their numbers. Thanks to everyone who came out on a really nasty night. For those who could not make it, you can still help out. I encourage you to send a check to the YRF directly, as it will likely be a year (and better weather) before we do this again. We hope to make this an annual event.

We made many new friends that night.

Suzy, Linda, Sean, Christy, Marti, Kevin and I thank every single one of you.

PS. It beats the hell out of a Mandy Patinkin concert! Whew!….

PPS. Short of some simple emailing and a phone call and being there, Marti and I had very little to do with this event from conception to finish. That credit goes to Suzy, Linda and Sean. These kids came up with the idea, organized it, ran down all the loose ends and got the word out. All the credit for any good that comes of the event should start with them. We love them all dearly and Scott would be smiling too.