2012 Resolutions

Well, I made it. Another year and another 365 blog posts. Just like my t-shirt blog, I had a lot of help with this one. Many people scanned for me, emailed me scans, and gave me (this year and in years past) a lot of the items that I scanned. Thank you to my family and friends who helped me and all of my 2011 projects like this blog and Skating for Hope – I couldn’t have done them without you!

I hope at the very minimum people enjoyed at least one of these scan blogs. And I hope both this blog and last year’s blog show at least one person that if you put your mind to it and promise yourself to do something, it’s possible. Here are some of the things I’m going to do for 2012. The end got cut off, but it says: “Be the change I want to see in the world” (from the Gandhi quote). I also forgot to add starting the website I’ve been working on, but that will come soon enough!

Thank for reading, and I hope you check out my video blog for next year! Happy 2012!

Skating for Hope VIP Badge

F.U. Crohn's. Maybe I'll write more later...

Card from a Hope Lodge Guest (11-11-11)

It’s always nice to be reminded why I do what I do, and know someone appreciates it. Thanks, T!

USPS Tracking Labels for My Star Wars Stuff (March, 2010)

My first attempt to fund Skating for Hope involved putting most of my Star Wars collection up for auction. I had made the decision to part with most of my possessions, and I figured beginning with some of the most difficult to part with would be a good way to start. I listed the Ebay auctions on my Vader Was Framed t-shirt blog, and luckily there were enough dorks like me who wanted to bid. I raised about $250 with the items these labels tracked, and my t-shirts gave me enough money to rent the hockey rink for 24 hours.

I think it’s almost time for me to take the next step of my possession purge…

Note from Wheelock College Alumni Office (7/26/11)

I’ve written and said it many times, but I couldn’t do many of the things I do without the help and support from other people. My t-shirt blog and Skating for Hope depended on family, friends, friends of family and friends, and many others.

The funny thing about support is you never know where it will come from. I contacted Stand Up To Cancer to see if they would donate a t-shirt for my blog last year, and never even heard back from them. They didn’t donate, but Hot Topic did.

Even though I hadn’t stepped on the Wheelock campus in over 10 years, I received this note from the alumni office just days before skating 24 hours. After Skating for Hope was over, they featured me in the Wheelock Alumni E-news for September. Thanks for all the support, Wheelock!

Hope Lodge Card

If you ask me what my least favorite season is, I’ll tell you summer. My Crohn’s and skin don’t mix well with a hot sun, and there’s no hockey. The Summer of 2011 was a different story and made me wonder if it might make a move out of the number for seasonal position.

First, the Bruins won The Cup for the first time since I’ve been alive. I started the day at what had become my usually Wednesday hangout: Buffone Arena’s hockey rink. I skated from 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM, and played a public hockey session from noon until past 2:00. I then skated and shot the puck around until about 5:00, when the rink manager Nick asked me if I was ready to go watch the B’s win The Cup. I had been waiting my whole life. That night, I watched with my Michigan-converted-Tim-Thomas-worshipping girlfriend and thanks to her, I went to my parents to celebrate with my family. Easily one of the best days of my life.

In between The Cup victory and parade, the Skating for Hope committee met to continue preparing for the event. My team had just won it all, but there was just over a month to get ready for the big day/night/day.

Saturday, June 18^th was the day if the Bruins Cup Parade, and my girlfriend and I headed into Beantown early to make sure we got a front row position. Although I had to sacrifice missing my 3^rd trip up to Burlington, VT to play in the 32-team wiffle ball tournament simply called Wifflefest, there was no way I was going to miss the parade. Seeing the first shimmering glimmer of The Cup making its way towards my position was the first time the B's ultimate victory started to sink in. And there Lord Stanley was, being held by Timmy Thomas who had Captain Z by his side. Still, unbelievable enough to doubt if it was really happening. But it did. And I’m pretty sure Adam McQuaid saw me wearing the “Darth Quaider” T-shirt my sister Carolyn designed. Sweet.

Skating for Hope preparations continued and with the suggestion of a friend, I even tried to get The Cup there. On July 30^th at 10:00AM, I took to the ice at Buffone Arena in Worcester. With a lot of great people behind me, I was able to make it through the 24-hours, played in 3 hockey games, and we raised a lot of money for Hope Lodge. All of the committee members and volunteers took responsibilities while I lived out my fantasy of being on a rink for an entire day. I played hockey with BC and BU Alum that can play about 4,385 times better than I can, and saw some taking the ice for their first times. We had a great Saint John's /Westboro High Alum game in memory of Danny Manning and Greg Montalbano. Family, old friends, new friends, and people I had never met came and supported the event. Even though my words can’t really capture how amazing it was for me, this collection of pictures and clips should give you an idea.

In the month of August, donations for Skating for Hope continued to arrive in the mail and online, and the total amount of money raised by Skating for Hope continued to increase. After a week of rest, I slowly introduced myself back to exercise and not having SFH on my mind. I took time to start writing thank you notes to people that helped, but knew to make them all personal it would take time. At the end of the month, I had another date with Lord Stanley. After stopping at Hampton Beach, NH to see Kenny Wayne Shepherd, I drove through the night up to PEI and arrived there late on a Saturday morning. It was a beautiful “PEI Day”, and my girlfriend and I caught up on our sleep on the sand The Island’s north shore. Saturday night included quick stops at Cow’s, the Charlottetown cannons, and a few races at the CDP (or whatever it’s called now). And Sunday was another Cup Parade. Although on a smaller scale than the Boston celebration, the Adam McQuaid Stanley Cup Festival was just as enjoyable and well worth the trip. I think the best quote of the weekend was JB’s thought about PEI as she was enjoying the beach: “Why would you ever leave here?”

After a 2-day workweek back at Hope Lodge, we celebrated my sister-in-laws birthday with a game night that included my dad mistakenly acting out Christopher Lloyd when his Cranium card said Christopher Walken (video to follow). Then, I went up north again for a full week on PEI. This time, I went with my mother and younger brother, and even though the good weather alternated each day it was a great week full of fun times. Labour Day was gorgeous, and the rest of the week I chatted with a Stanley Cup champion, drive up The Island’s west coast (from West Point to North Cape), went to the PEI Potato Museum, listened to Celtic music by Cynthia MacLeod, Gordon Belsher, and Richard Wood, and finished the week going to the Buddy musical. It went by too fast, and I’m already missing PEI.

Last week was one of recovery from a very intense, unbelievable, and magical summer. I’m ready to skate, play hockey, watch hockey, plan Skating for Hope II, and finish writing thank you notes to all the people who helped with Skating for Hope – thank you for your patience. And, thanks to everyone who made this summer a very memorable one!

Skating for Hope Checks ($13, 740.34)

So, I forgot about the fees that www.myevent.com charged for each donation, so the total is a little less than what I thought. (Maybe next year, ACS will give me a website?) Still, I was very happy when I gave these checks to the Hope Lodge manager. Thanks again to everyone who helped make the first event such a success!

Catholic Free Press Article about Skating for Hope (7/29/11)

If you were looking for another sign of the oncoming apocalypse, this article will help you out. Not only would I have never predicted being interviewed by the Catholic Free Pressfor a story, I certainly wouldn’t have thought it would be the headline with my picture right next to it. But it happened…

Like I told my cousin Katie, I’m just glad he didn’t ask me any questions about my opinion of the Catholic Church. I made sure to tell him up front that I was an altar boy for 10 years and went to Catholic High School and Boston College (I “did the whole program” as Mike Birbiglia says).

But other than a few numerical mistakes (and for some reason not mentioning BC gradJamie O’Leary), I think this is a great article about Skating for Hope and certainly helped out the cause. Thanks CFP, and great picture by Jess!

Here’s the: Online article

Skating for Hope Promo Cards

It was February of 2009 when I wrote down in my journal the idea to skate 24 hours for Hope Lodge (you can see the scan of that entry and how my idea was made into reality here).

Even though the initial idea was just for me to skate, Skating for Hope ballooned into a much bigger event – one I certainly needed help with. Like they had been doing my whole life (brain cancer comes to mind), my family and friends rallied around me in support and helped with all of the non-skating responsibilities needed to pull it off.

We had to organize food, raffle items, hockey players, volunteers, announcements, the website, special guests, music, and other things I’m sure I can’t think of. The Skating for Hope committee had the responsibility of making sure all of these ran smoothly during the event.

Even though skating and playing in three hockey games for 24 hours straight may seem difficult, I think I had the easiest job of anyone that was working at Skating for Hope – I was having fun the whole time.

To me, Skating for Hope was a perfect melding of two dreams. One dream of mine is to do whatever I can to help Hope Lodge. The second is to have my own hockey rink. Well, I did have my own hockey rink for a day and I used it to do the things I love: help cancer patients, skate, and play hockey.

There are so many people to thank for helping me make Skating for Hope happen, I’m sure I will forget someone. My family and friends are a constant reminder of the fact that the most important thing in life is the people you have in yours – I am able to do what I do because of the support of my family and friends. The Skating for Hope Committee (which was mostly my family), Jess, Nick and the FMC employees, Skating for Hope volunteers, Danny Manning, Jr., Greg Montalbano, Justin Horton, the BC/BU hockey alum, the 501^st Star Wars people, the Sharks, the Bruins, Worcester Magazine, The Worcester Telegram, people who donated raffle items, The Catholic Free Press, WHS and SJ Alum, all the skaters, and everyone who made a donation all contributed into making the first Skating for Hope a success – close to $15,000 was raised.

We had a post-SFH meeting today, and I shared with the group what part of my plan is for the future Skating for Hope events. I will continue skating/playing hockey for the full 24-hours until $1,000,000 has been raised for Hope Lodge. If we double the amount each year, that should take less than 10 – definitely doable.

I scanned these things because I finally put all of the pictures and videos together and posted the “Skating for Hope Short Film” here. I hope you enjoy and keep in mind there are a couple of parts that I’d call “PG-13”.

Thanks to everyone for helping out!

Dave's Daily T-shirts Card (2010)

Some people don’t know this, but Skating for Hope wouldn’t have been possible without my t-shirts. In 2010, I wore a different t-shirt each day and blogged about them at www.davestshirts.blogspot.com. I took donations for them at http://bit.ly/davestshirtsforhope, and by the end of February this year, I had raised enough money to rent the rink for the 24-hours of Skating for Hope. Thanks to Jess for making me these cards last year! Should have the 30-minute SFH video done by tomorrow…

Notes with Skating for Hope Donations

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to thank every person who contributed to Skating for Hope’s success, but tonight I’d like to thank everyone who has sent checks to Hope Lodge...thank you!

These are a few of the notes that came with the checks, and they make smile a lot (especially the “hope you beat Matt” reference to the SJ-WHS game).

The typed note (which I got today) reminded me of one reason why I wanted to make Skating for Hope a reality and what helped me get through the 24 hours. In addition to doing whatever I could to help Hope Lodge, I wanted to tell my diseases to “f- off” and that they couldn’t stop me from reaching my goal. I will always have brain cancer and Crohn’s Disease as parts of my medical background, but I will always use them as motivators rather than roadblocks…

Scout Trooper Card (with video from Skating for Hope)

One of the first groups I invited to Skating for Hope was the Alderaan Base, a.k.a. 501^st New England. They came, and the response was wonderful. Darth Vader came out of the locker room flanked by a storm trooper and scout trooper and in about 3 seconds all the kids surrounded them. The scout trooper was an even bigger hit when he laced ‘em up and took a few laps with the kids. He also took some spills, but kept on going. Check it out here. Talk about being a REAL trooper…

Thank you to all the Star Wars troops that came out to Skating for Hope!

Paul Stewart Autographed Picture for Hope Lodge (7/30/11)

After reffing the 1:00 BC Alum game at Skating for Hope and talking to kids about his cancer experience / cancer prevention, “Stewy” left this picture that is now framed and in the living room of Hope Lodge…Thanks, Stewy!

Zambonis Autographed CD and Sticker

I will write more about my experience skating/playing hockey for 24 hours at Skating for Hope when I have the energy, but here’s another donation I received in the mail. The Zambonis are a band that sings songs about hockey and amidst all the preparation for the event, they didn’t cross my mind until I was putting together the 24-hour song playlist. With extreme short notice, I emailed band leader Dave “Zamboni”, and asked them if they were available to play at Skating for Hope. He got back to me and told me they couldn’t make it, but he would send some CDs. He also told me that for next year, he thought they could be there to play songs and emcee the whole event. This first year of Skating for Hope was amazing, but I know that next year’s is going to be even better. Thank you again to my family, friends, and everyone that supported Skating for Hope through hard work, donations, skating, and hockey!

Skating for Hope First Outline (3/9/11)

Well, it's not going to be exactly like this, but it's still going to kick ass!!!

Miracle DVD

Yes, I do.

And in case you didn’t hear, we’ll be having a midnight showing (with a sound system and projector) of this movie at Skating for Hope at midnight!

Do You Believe in Miracles? DVD

Welcome to my week of inspiration through hockey in the movies…

When I was walking down the stairs to start my shift at Hope Lodge tonight, I could feel the stress of wanting every last detail of Skating for Hope to be already taken care of. Then, I thought of the reason I wanted to do the whole thing – all of the Hope Lodge guests past and present. I thought of the challenges they have to put up with on a daily basis, and how any worries I have about the skate-a-thon really don’t compare to the stress of dealing with cancer. I thought of those guests who have lost their battles with cancer. My stress of planning the event soon passed, and I was reminded that my initial goal for Skating for Hope was only that I skate 24 hours for Hope Lodge. That’s already happening, and now I have a lot of other people supporting the event along with me.

Even with the inspiration from Hope Lodge guests and support from everyone, I think during the nights this week I will be looking for more inspiration from my collection of hockey movies. First up tonight is the documentary (yes, I’m a documentary dork) about the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team titled Do You Believe in Miracles?. Although I don’t remember specifics of watching the games that year, I do remember running around with my older brother Jon and singing “We are the Champions” over and over (something I wouldn’t do again until BC Hockey won a national title in 2001). It was a big year for me…US won Olympic hockey gold, and The Empire Strikes Back came out. Off to get inspired by some college kids who beat the best hockey team in the world…

Do I believe in miracles? Yes!

AHL All-Star Skills Competition Program and Game Ticket (1/25/09, 1/26/09)

When I started working at Hope Lodge 4 years ago, the Worcester Sharks were the first organization in the community that I contacted to try and make a connection with. I was put in touch with Mike Myers, and he immediately told me Hope Lodge could get free tickets to any game we wanted. Awesome.

The Sharks also helped out when Mike designed a pink goalie mask for Thomas Greiss to wear for the month of October. It was auctioned off at $5000, with all money going to Hope Lodge.

A couple of months later, we had a 17-year-old guest staying at Hope Lodge. He wanted to go to a Sharks game, but they didn’t have any home games scheduled for when he was here. So, Mike Myers and Sharks player Riley Armstrong came to visit him at Hope Lodge. It was great, and you can read that whole story here.

I wondered if Hope Lodge would still get free tickets when the AHL All-Star game came to Worcester two years ago, and we did. I think the highlight for me was watching former BC Eagle Cory Schneider setting a record by making 18 saves on 19 shots in the All-Star Skills competition.

Not surprisingly, the Sharks are helping Hope Lodge with Skating for Hope. Finz is making two appearances, and the Sharks provided games and prizes to keep the event going. Oh yeah, they are making me a Sharks jersey…sweet!

Thank you for all the support, Sharks!

Today’s article from the Worcester Telegram and Gazette (Hope is the thing with skates)

Here’s the scanned version of today’s article about Skating for Hope from the Worcester Telegram. A couple of things…One, I think they could have picked a better picture of Jess and me (he took about 50). Two, they printed the wrong website address for SFH. Still, it’s always good to get more publicity!

BC Hockey Pics (1998-2001)

My name is Dave and I love hockey. I never played in an organized game as a kid, but got in plenty of street and pond hockey. As a member of the McGrath household, my NHL allegiance was unquestionable. We watched the Bruins, went to the “Gahden”, and suffered together each year they fell short of winning The Cup. College hockey wasn’t a big part of my life growing up, but that all changed in the summer of 1991…

One afternoon while I was working at Mini Farms in downtown Westboro, my aunt called me to see if I wanted to go with her and my cousin Katie on a tour of Boston College. Growing up I had rooted against BC when we went to see the Eagles play Holy Cross (my dad’s alma mater), but I liked the idea of going to a Catholic school near Boston.

As we walked around Upper Campus, I was impressed. When the tour took us into Conte Forum, everything changed. I pictured myself watching hockey games there, and I knew BC was the school for me. The following year I applied early, and got into my #1 pick.

Although the Eagles didn’t have their most successful years while I was there, they did win the Beanpot my sophomore year. After I graduated in 1996, the program really started to take off.

When I moved to Waltham in 1997, one of my roommates was in the Pike’s Peak Club, and we followed the Eagles religiously that season. Even before the season started, he managed to score the prior season’s team picture and we proudly hung it up in our “bar room” (I loved it when people came over and asked me where I was in the picture). We were chaperones (no joke) for the Pike’s Peak sponsored trip to a BC game up at UNH, where the yellow Superfan t-shirts were unveiled. We watched the Eagles rise through the national rankings, and went to the Championship game against Michigan that year. To this date, it is the most heartbreaking sporting event I’ve attended.

Still, I kept following the BC boys and watched them fall short in 1999 and 2000. In 2001, BC Hockey did something I’m guessing no other team in any other sport has ever done. They had lost in the NCAA tournament to Michigan in 1998, Maine in 1999, and North Dakota in 2000. In 2001, they beat these three teams in their way to BC’s first hockey championship since 1949. Two really great things about this: 1. It was the first time one of “my” teams (Bruins, Sox, Pats, BC) won a championship. 2. Those freakin’ BU fans couldn’t chant “1949!” anymore (I actually started chanting “1995!” whenever I went to a BC-BU game after 2001).

The Eagles have since won titles in 2008 and 2010, and (even with this year’s first round upset) don’t appear to be letting up anytime soon. My name is Dave, and I love BC hockey.

I love BC hockey, and it was really a no-brainer that as soon as I had booked the rink for Skating for Hope, I started trying to get some Eagles there. Three former BC hockey players (Jamie O’Leary, Blake Bellefeuille, and Bobby Allen) responded immediately that they wanted to participate, and I have been looking forward to skating with them ever since. Now, Paul Stewart is going to ref this game and it looks like we’re going to have some former BU Terriers to play against (I predict I will be in the penalty box about 10 seconds in). Skating for Hope was a dream of mine 2 years ago, and these BCers are making part of it a BC Hockey fantasy for me. Thanks again, guys.

Here are some of the BC pictures taken by my dad and me:

Bobby Allen from 1998 championship game against Michigan.

Blake Bellefeuille from 1998 championship game against Michigan.

My friends Patrick, Scott, Father Monan (then BC president) and me at the 1998 championship game.

Me by the team photo before going to 1997-1998 BC Hockey postseason dinner.

BC skating out at a game in 2000 (senior night?).

Blake Bellefeuille at warm-ups.

2000 BC Lineup, a roster with 9 (I think – Farkas, Gionta, Bellefeuille, Mottau, Kolanos, Allen, Scuderi, Orpik, Clemmensen) players who would play in the NHL.

The sign on the Mass Pike (it was fun pulling over to take this one!).