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

Hope Lodge Weekend Manager Saves a Life! (Worcester Telegram Article, 7/30/11)

I have a lot of heroes. Jon Stewart and Denis Leary come to mind immediately. Cam Neely, Eddie Vedder, Matt Groening, and Seth McFarlane make my list, too. There is also Michael J. Fox, Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, Extreme, Mike McCready, Tim Thomas, Adam McQuaid, Conan O’Brien, and Mike Birbiglia.

But these are people I have never met or only met briefly. Although they have helped me strive to be a better person, they have not shaped my life as close to the heroes that I know – Luckily, I have a lot of these heroes as well.

At the top of this list is my family: My parents, siblings, aunts and uncle, cousins, nephews, niece, and in-laws. They have supported me through think and thin and have shown me what unconditional love is. Many of my friends have been there for me through my toughest times as well. My “best buds” Andy, Glen, Matt, Patrick, Carl, and Scott always make me feel lucky knowing I have them in my corner. I also have cancer-related heroes: Justin Horton, Danny Manning, Greg Montalbano, and all of the Hope Lodge guests fall here.

There are also groups of people who are my heroes: Doctors, nurses, firefighters, teachers, and people in the armed forces. They all work at difficult jobs and help people every day.

Tonight, I found out one of the Hope Lodge weekend managers acted very heroic recently. As you can see in the article below (or online version here), Steve helped save someone’s life last month. When he’s not saving lives or helping Hope Lodge guests, Steve works with special ed students that have severe emotional and behavioral issues. Like all of the heroes I listed above, the world would be a better place if there were more people like Steve in it.

I’ve written about it before, but I wish the news had more stories like this one instead of those filled with violence and sex. I’m sure in reality the good stories outnumber the bad ones, but I think until people stop watching the news as it is, they won’t change what is reported.

Thank you to Steve and all of my heroes for inspiring me…

Article in Community News at Wheelock (1998)

12 years ago, I was getting my Master’s in Special Education at Wheelock College. In most of my classes, I had one or zero other males there with me. For the first time in my life, I was part of a minority. Here is what I wrote about it in the December 7, 1998 issue of the Community News:

I thought it would be a good article to share for Black History Month even though I will never know what it is like to be black or any other group that has been treated so unfairly.

What I do know is what my parents taught me. Even though they never explicitly said “Don’t treat others differently because of their race or how they look”, they taught me by example. I saw them treating all people with respect and never heard them making racist statements or even jokes.

Along with having great role models in my parents, racism and prejudice never made sense to me. Treat others as you would like to be treated is what makes sense to me.

I know racism still exists worldwide, and the only way to stop it is for everyone to teach the next generation to judge people based on their actions and not on their gender, race, religion, nationality, or sexual preference. Until everyone realizes that we’re all in this together, injustice will live on…

For more information on Black History Month, you can go to history.com and biography.com. MLK’s entire “I Have a Dream” speech is below: