06/23/2025
Happy Monday to our co****le family and friends.
Semi-long read ahead.
We've hosted and done a lot of fundraisers for a lot of amazing people and causes. I think it has been my favorite part of running SCC. Although you might know the person or people/causes that they are for, a lot of times we don't know very much about them. So I'm going to introduce you to my brother-in-law Andy and tell you a bit about him and his life. Andy is my brother-in-law by way of marriage to my sister. They have two kiddos, (both adults themselves now). He loves a good adventure and was always down to try anything most would consider risky. He enjoyed snowboarding, rock climbing, mountain biking, camping, traveling, reading and attending concerts. Well, Pearl Jam anyway. He's definitely one of their biggest fans. He is one of the most stubborn people I've ever met but would do anything he could to help others out when asked or he knew it was needed. I think one of his most joyous things in life was being a Scout Leader. Helping kiddos and young men learn valuable life skills and lessons I could see brought him happiness. Especially with his son who started at a young age and made it through all of the ranks to earn his Eagle Scout Bagde. He enjoys history and learning about it all. He is the absolute worst story teller that I've ever met but always give him an A for the effort haha. He loves Pepsi and energy drinks and anything with sugar in it. Has never eaten green vegetables in his life as he would tell you that they cause cancer. He didn't do a lot of cooking but hot dogs and fried potatoes were is go to when he did cook, (yes the visual you just got is correct) and he made a kick ass cedar plank blackened salmon. He loves the Simpsons and dumb humor comedies. He is a social person if you know him but wouldn't go out of his way to meet new people and make new friends.
In late 2022 he, "won the worst lottery in the world", (his words) and was diagnosed with ALS. A horrible disease with the life expectancy of 2 to 5 years after diagnosis. He's made it to the middle of those numbers but those days are truly numbered at this point. If you don't know much about ALS here's a quick summary.
ALS: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. There is no cure for ALS yet. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. They govern voluntary movements and muscle control. ALS causes these motor neurons to degenerate over time until they eventually die. When the motor neurons die, the brain can no longer initiate and control muscle movement. When voluntary muscle action is progressively affected, people may lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe.
Only about 30,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with this disease right now. I would not wish this on anyone. It's nasty and seeing someone close go through all of the stages of out the past couple year's is heartbreaking.
If you made it all the way through this novel, thank you for taking a few minutes to mind of get to know the guy that I'm doing this fundraiser for. I'm hoping that he's still here to be able to make it to the event but I'm not thinking that will be the case. This disease has wreaked havoc the past couple months.
Have a great rest of your Monday and week and we hope to see you all for some bag tossing action August 2nd.
All the love and respect!!!! ☘️☘️☘️☘️
