Alan’s Army

Wow! What a weekend! It turned out so much different than what I was expecting. I figured I’d attend the dinner for an event that Amber was participating in on Friday night, get up early on Saturday to help run a big disc golf tournament at Tyler State Park, and then simply crash on Sunday. Boy, did I not have a clue.Amber was participating in the American Cancer Society’s “Relay For Life”, an event where teams of walkers walk all through the night to raise funds for cancer research. The event also focuses on cancer survivors, so the entire family had been invited to a survivor’s dinner and “survivor’s lap” prior to the start of the fund-raising laps. Our dear friend, and workmate of mine, Nancy Raymond, was Amber’s team captain and her daughters (our nieces for all intensive purposes) Emily and Sami were also part of the team.The dinner was at 5pm Friday night, so I left work early, pulled into the driveway and as I was sitting in the jeep mentally checklisting (hmm, is that a verb?) what I needed to prepare for Saturday’s tournament, a van pulled into the driveway. At first I thought someone was picking up Amber, but then I realized I recognized the vehicle and it was in the wrong state. It turns out our dear friends Bob, Kyle, and Josh had arranged with Tournament Director John Birkrem to register for the tournament under fake names; had made sleeping and dinner arrangements through Amber with the entire Sweeton/Curtis/Van Nostrand/Van Liew clan, and had driven down from Maine as a surprise for Alan and I. What a fantastic start to the weekend!With them, Bob brought a big cooler of seaweed with 20 Maine lobsters nestled within it for a big family dinner, but since we had the Relay for Life event, we would have to put that on hold until Sunday, so we took the beer out of the barn fridge and filled it with seaweed and sea “bugs.”While the boys from Maine headed off to buy supplies at Wal-mart, we headed off to Montgomery High School for the Relay for Life event. And what a great, well organized event it was! We showed up and Alan was given a survivor’s medal to wear and a nice gift bag of goodies donated by local businesses. Everyone received a purple “Relay for Life” T-shirt to wear, and we had a nice lasagna dinner while listening to a touching survivor story. We then braved a passing rain shower and went out to the track for the walk. We heard a speech from the mayor, then a very nice motivational speech from a young women, aptly named Hope, who was diagnosed with cancer six years ago while in Montgomery Middle School and is now attending college. Then all the survivors, along with their families and caregivers, made a “survivor’s lap.” It was very emotional, but only a taste of emotions yet to come during this extraordinary weekend.Nancy had her team all setup with a big tent for snoozing between walking shifts and plenty of “fuel” (mostly Twizzlers - as the girls, and Nancy, all have an extreme affinity for them) to get them through the night. After spending some time with friends and neighbors in the festive atmosphere, Ginny, Alan, and I left for home with tears of pride in our eyes leaving Amber with her team to walk through the night to raise money for this important, and now personal, cause.Saturday was the Great Eastern Amateur Cup, the second largest tournament our club runs annually. This is a 90 player, Amateur-only, Professional Disc Golf Association B-Tier event. We were all extra excited about this year’s event as Alan was going to play, and hopefully finish all 36 holes. Saturday dawned bright and early with beautiful weather as I drove Alan out of the sack so we could stop in and check on Amber at the track before driving to the park. Nancy and the girls were tired but happy and still moving - way to go Team! As of this writing I have not heard any final numbers on how far the team walked, but I know Amber raised over $200 and the team raised over $2000. More emotion and tears from a proud Dad at Amber’s accomplishment as he drove off with Alan towards Tyler State Park in Newtown PA.Saturday was a beautiful day for a disc golf tournament. Our dear friend Bob Graham, a professional disc golfer and the NJ State PDGA Representative, acted as Alan’s caddy and guide. Bob helped Alan navigate the course, set him up at the tees, described the obstacles in his flight path, and waved a white towel so he could tell where the baskets were when putting out. Alan shot a 98 the first round and an 87 the second round. Alan’s last hole of the day was the dreaded hole 27, arguably the toughest hole in the layout as players had been taking 8s, 9s, and 10s on it all day, and even some 14s and 15s were recorded. With 75+ disc golfers and fans cheering him into the finish, Alan sank an awesome 20 foot putt to score a six! I was crying like a baby and I wasn’t the only one, as the spectators cheered for Alan and his accomplishment. Thanks to BCDGA treasurer Marc Brooks, you can see Alan playing the last hole. Go to our club website at www.bcdga.com and click on the videos link. Videos 17, 19, 20, 23, and 26 show Alan’s first 5 shots on hole 27 and video #29 shows him making the putt. It is very interesting to watch how Bob Graham was able to use a walking stick and visual queues that Alan could make out to help Alan to understand the types of throws he needed to make. The producer of disc golf monthly, Kevin McGorry, who had just finished his own round in the tourney, can be seen in Marc’s clips also filming Bob and Alan and we look forward to seeing that video as well.In the top division, Advanced Amateur, Josh Connell shot the hot score of 57 in the first round along with another of Alan’s good friends, BCDGA club member Erick Simonds and also two others. Josh also had the hot score in the second round with a 54 to win by strokes over Erick who shot a very nice 56 to take second place. After accepting his trophy and prizes, Josh stated that he had met his goal for the day which was to win in honor of Alan and then presented his trophy to Alan. Tournament Director John Birkrem also gave a very emotional speech as he presented Alan with a special “Role Model” trophy. The applause was tremendous as emotions ran high and lots more tears flowed. What an amazing day! John had run a great tournament, and after the players left and the faithful packed all the gear away, we sat under the pavilion and talked - no one wanted to leave the day behind.The next day we needed to worry about taking care of the 20 bugs in the barn fridge. As founder of the feast, Bob invited John Birkrem, John McGinley and family, and Bob Graham and Kit Basset to join the family clan for dinner. Earlier in the afternoon, Alan, Amber, Bob, Kyle, Josh, and I went to see the new Star Trek movie. It was fantastic even for a non-trekkie like me. That evening we had surf and turf - Bob’s lobsters, John McGinley’s London Broils, Ginny’s salads, and the Nancy Curtis’ cakes made quite a spread. We all pigged out and then played Dodgebee (a new game from Innova that is played similar to dodge ball, but with a soft cloth/foam flying disc) on the lawn until it was too dark to see. We then retired to the back patio to tell good, and bad, jokes and talk movies well into the night.It was a fantastic weekend of great disc golf, great food, great fun, and great friends, all crowned by the great individual achievements made by Josh, Amber, and Alan during the course of the weekend.At 7 am Monday morning we said goodbye to Bob, Kyle, and Josh as they took off to drive home. It wasn’t as hard as some of our past partings because we knew that only four days later on Friday morning, fourteen BCDGA members would be driving up to Maine to see all our Northern friends again for the Dragan Disc Golf Championship at Dragan Field in Auburn, Maine. I’m sure it will be a second weekend we will all recall with fond memories for years to come.Here’s hoping you all find time this summer to find the same joy in the best of times with the best of family and friends.God Bless,Andrew