A pandemic milestone

 This past week marked one year since COVID-19 landed in the U.S. and changed everything. 

A year ago, we were trying to get Erin home from Philadelphia, never imagining that she would spend 5 months in our basement doing online college, and that she'd still be going to school online 12 months later.

A year ago, the team of coworkers I worked most closely with were let go, and within weeks, myself and others were notified that we would be furloughed throughout the spring and summer months. 

A year ago, Dan's company pulled the sales guys off the road and they still haven't returned to regular travel. 

A year ago, we were hoping that we could shelter in place for a few weeks and stop the spread of the virus. Now 12 long months later, we are finally feeling some hope that life will be improving in the near future.

The past year has been filled with loss for sure. But our losses of normalcy are small, compared with the losses suffered by so many others. While Erin contracted COVID, she weathered it well and is now lucky enough to be fully vaccinated. Dan and I have jobs that allow us to work from home, so we have avoided the virus and now our vaccinations are underway. Both sets of parents - one in their 70s and one in their 90s - have stayed healthy. We are lucky. 

With vaccinations underway and increasing rapidly across the U.S., it feels OK to be cautiously optimistic.

This week, Erin is finishing up a full year of online school. Not how college is meant to be, but she has persevered and is finishing her junior year coursework this week. She will spend the next 6 months doing her co-op experience, working in a brain injury clinic in Philadelphia as a diagnostic tech. One of the draws of Drexel was that co-op is built into the plan of study for all students. Erin is ready for the change of pace. 

While so many plans and events were canceled this past year, we continued the work of our foundation and gave out scholarships to four deserving winners again in 2021. 

Abby Wick, Katherine Thorvilson, Josh Hanson and Hayden Jones will carry on Shannon's spirit as the latest scholarship recipients. We're glad to have them on our team.

Decades from now when we look back at these pictures, I wonder what we will think about the masks on our faces. I certainly hope next year is different.

So, on the one year anniversary of the pandemic, I'm taking a moment to be thankful. We stayed healthy. Erin stayed on track. Dan and I stayed employed. Many others did not. 

Having hope feels good. I can't wait to see my family and friends and I can't wait to travel. Here's to mass vaccinations and turning the dial back slowly towards normalcy... 

Applications and Endurance

 Man, it’s been forever since I blogged.  I woke up early to read through scholarship apps.  We will select the Shannon Scholars this weekend when we hold our board of directors meeting.  The meeting will be held virtually, of course.  

We are holding my annual company meetings virtually too.  I would be in Florida for those - probably smoking a cigar and looking at the Atlantic Ocean with a bunch of other sales guys.  But it ain’t so bad.

Our company was one of the first to pull its people out of the field when the pandemic began to spread.  We will probably also be one of the last to go back out.  Kudos to WEX Inc.  I still love my job.  I’m 57 but I’ll keep grinding as long as they will let me.  I am fulfilled doing deals.  I like helping companies and the people that do the work in those companies.

I know this has been a challenging time in our world.  Time to reach back into the reserves of mental wellness and persist.  We are almost there.  Plus it’s winter-as-heck up here in MN.  What else you going to do?

Which brings me back to the apps.  There are some outstanding young people coming up in this world.  As adults we feel so bad for them - they are getting screwed out of many of the traditional high school experiences - but it ain’t so bad.  In this small scale of 13 or so Rochester young adults,  the messages give me great hope.  These kids get it.

Time for another cup of Dunn Bros grind.  Cozy by the fire 🔥.  Reading stories from kids that never knew Shannon O’Hara but carry her spirit in the way they go about things.  That’s pretty cool.

The world we are living in right now is an us not a me.  It ain’t so bad.

Christmas 2020.

 My parents have been encouraging me to blog since I was about 12. What better time than Christmas 2020 to finally listen to them? :) Christmas this year is weird, a holiday typically centered around sharing and catching up with family, now stripped to immediate families if you’re lucky. I am fortunate to be able to spend a few weeks at home with my parents, who are doing the best they can through these crazy times. BTW… “fortunate” is a relative term because I am pretty sure it was -2 yesterday…. Also, what 19-year-old LIKEs living in their parent’s basement? I digress….

Christmas has never been an easy holiday for us, it is filled with our memories of our Shannon sick, and it can often be a reminder of what we’ve lost  My dad and I shared a moment of relief this year discussing not having to tiptoe around small talk on Christmas. Yesterday, on Christmas Eve, in between episodes of our current binge-watch, I convinced my mom to watch some of our old home videos with me. Shannon’s spirit is bright even when she was four years old, pushing her little sister around. We laughed at how dorky my parents were in their thirties and the constant sibling rivalry between Shannon and me. It is sometimes hard to watch but good to remember :) 

It’s always been a complicated balance for me, missing Shannon, but I also understand that

I am largely who I am today because we lost her. I am in my junior year of college now,

enjoying my studies in Health Sciences. I have clicked off over 150 college credits at age

19 living in Philadelphia, and I will be applying to PA schools in the spring. I have been talking about going into medicine since my sister was sick, and it is quite hard to believe that I am closer to that career than I have ever been. Shannon is the reason for my drive, motivation, compassion, and why I want to be the kind of provider I want to be. I’d like to think she would be proud.

After a few days of grumbling about how cold it is outside, my parents convinced me to go on a walk with them to the golf course. Although I’m often skeptical of our “spiritual” experiences, there was no denying our guardian angel was present when not one, but 2, bald eagles flew over my mom, dad, and me on Christmas Day.

In the most isolated year of all time, I find myself having gratitude for the humanity around me. I’ve been lucky enough to surround myself with people I can laugh, cry with, and experience everything that this crazy year has thrown at us together. Going into 2021, I encourage all of us to live with compassion, a positive attitude, and a sense of humor through it all because that’s how we can honor my big sister, Shannon. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

SOF Scholarships

 Like everything else in 2020, things are different this year for the Shannon O'Hara Foundation. We are sending out our yearly letter to our donors, but without a specific hard request for donations. The foundation is financially healthy, and we recognize that this has bene an incredibly difficult year for people and businesses that have always supported us. We will weather this storm.

It is highly unlikely that we will be at Graham Arena in January as we normally are for various hockey events, including the Shannon Cup youth hockey tournament. Even if there's a way to hold the tournament itself by late January, we don't anticipate that it will be safe to be in the arena selling our merchandise and mingling with teams. We will patiently wait for better days ahead, and plan to return in 2022.

High school winter sports are also a question mark right now. We feel for these student athletes who are missing out on making memories. We will miss the chances to watch kids play the sport that Shannon loved so much.

One thing that won't change is the SOF scholarship. The pandemic won't stop us from supporting higher education and local youth by giving out scholarships again in 2021. 

Today, I took the time to look back at our scholarship winners. I needed the reminder of something good.

               

       

In our 8 years, 26 kids have received a total of $55,000. Like everything else this year, scholarship season will look different, but we will give them out some way, some how...

If you know a Rochester HS senior who played youth hockey, encourage them to apply. The application is available on the Shannon O'Hara Foundation website. Applications are due Jan. 10th.

Stay safe and be well, everyone.

November 8, 2020

It's been too long since I last wrote as the days, weeks, months of 2020 continue to slowly pass by. This election week has been worse than most, as I was filled with the anxiety of waiting for a result and hoping for a new way forward. 

I hopef for less hate, more tolerance. I hope that more voices will have a seat at the table. I have nothing against white men, but they shouldn't be the only voices in power. I am happy to see a woman rise to the 2nd highest office in our country. This is progress.

I hope for a peaceful transition of power and a government that can start to collaborate and compromise for the good of the people. I fear that those who hate will not go quietly, but as Dan reminds me often, you can plan the action, but not the outcome. 

One last thing about the election - this was Erin's first chance to vote. She and her friends were engaged and they understand voting rights and the electoral college way better than I did when I was 20! Erin told us being in the city of Philadelphia, which has been at the center of the election drama, has been invigorating. Erin loves her adopted city and the people in it. 

One reason I haven't written much, is nothing much changes in 2020. We are definitely in a groundhog day scenario. We work, we grocery shop, we cook, we get tired of cooking so we get takeout... repeat...

We are entering another COVID wave and I don't think anything is going to change any time soon. This has put a real damper on what is usually our fundraising time of year for the Shannon O'Hara Foundation. We typically send a fundraising letter in December and then hold the Shannon Cup hockey tournamentsin January. While the tournament may still take place, the likelihood of having vendors in the arena is very small. So this may be a year where we don't raise any funds. Another COVID-19 casualty, but hopefully just a one year blip on the work of the foundation.

Despite a down year, the foundation finances are healthy and we still intend to give out scholarships again in 2021. This will be our 9th year, having awarded money to 26 kids to date. This is absolutely the best way we remember and honor Shannon, so even a pandemic won't stop us. 

If you know a senior at a Rochester, MN high school who was involved with youth hockey and is pursuing higher education, please share our application with them. You do not have to be a high school hockey player to be eligible. Applications are due Jan. 10, 2021:

2021 Shannon O'Hara Memorial Scholarship

If you're curious, you can check out all our past winners here:

SOF Past Scholarship Recipients

Many of those past recipients are now done with college. Some are pursuing advanced degrees. Some are in the workforce. Some are getting married! Time does march on, even if 2020 has felt like an eternity. 

The foundation work always reminds me that good can come from loss. 2020 has brought so much loss to so many, and I need to remember that there is a light at the other end of the tunnel. Here's to better days ahead... for us all...

RBG, COVID hits home, The Shannon Tee - Sept, 19, 2020

Last night the news that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died hit me hard. 2020 has been relentless. And it's only September.

RBG's pursuit of equal rights and her work to strike down discrimination on the basis of sex matters deeply to me. As a woman, and as a mother of a daughter, she was an icon worthy of my admiration. 

While she became known for her dissenting opinions, which might just seem like more of the "us" vs. "them" that plagues our country right now, she made it clear that dissenting is about looking at what could be in the future and to give a roadmap to future courts. And, I love that a 5 foot, 100 pound 80 year-old woman became a cultural phenomenon. So much to admire in her well-lived life. The Notorious RBG.

We can also take a cue from RBG when it comes to civil discourse and the ability to disagree but not be disagreeable. Oh, how much better off would our country be if we treated each other in a civil manner? Yes, I am a liberal and I worry about what's ahead for our country. But what I wish for most is a return to civility. We are all hurting right now for a variety of reasons - the pandemic, social unrest, economic stresses, wildfires, hurricanes. I wish we could unite around the human condition because this is a collective struggle for better days ahead.

As the pandemic continues on, it hit close to home for us this week. Erin and several friends in Philly tested positive for COVID. We knew this was a risk when she moved from our basement in a town of 120,000 to an apartment with 4 roommates in a town of 1.5 million. Thankfully, Erin's symptoms are very mild and we hope she can ride it out relatively unscathed. She is tired and she has lost her sense of taste and smell, all of which will hopefully be temporary. Thankfully, a friend's parents who are nearby are helping with food and supplies for the infected girls. They are together for the 10 day isolation period, binging Netflix and preparing for fall quarter, which starts Monday online. Of course, this mama is making Erin check in every 12 hours... it's the least she can do for me when she's 1200 miles away!

I am glad to report it's not all bad news here. Earlier this week, we had something to celebrate. An idea Dan had to honor Shannon came to fruition. 

When Shannon got sick, she was just starting to find her golf game and our neighborhood course, Willow Creek, is where she learned to play. After hearing about Shannon's illness, Willow's management at the time asked us if there was anything they could do for our family. Shannon spoke right up and said they needed an easier tee for girls on the Par 5 11th hole! It was sassy Shannon at her finest.

And so, the Shannon Tee was born. Wendell Pittenger, Scott Rindahl and Rod Johnson quickly built a forward tee, and Shannon was thrilled to get a chance to clear the creek with her drive.

Now, some 9 years later, a memorial bench sits at that tee box.

A big thanks to new Willow Creek owners Andy Black and Will Lancaster for allowing us this space, and another heartfelt thanks to our friend, Shaun Lang, who built the bench and donated his time and considerable skills to the effort.

We now get to have a moment of gratitude each time we play the 11th, and we hope others do, too. A little reminder of what's important... what really matters. We need that now more than ever.

Road trip - August 2020

2020 is a year that requires patience, resiliency and an ability to live in the moment and adjust as necessary. I'm good at two of those things... COVID-19 has meant that long term planning is a foolish proposition. What started in March with Erin's campus shutting down has carried through the summer and on into August.

We spent A LOT of time together, the three of us, as Dan wasn't traveling and I was furloughed starting June 1. Thankfully, my 12 week furlough was reduced to 6 and I returned to work July 13. It is good to be back.  

Dan and I were grateful for the bonus time with Erin, and Willow Lane was a safe place to be during the early, unsettling days of the pandemic. Erin made the most of being stuck back in Rochester, taking a bunch of credits spring and summer quarters, and working part time at the golf course for some spending money. 

While summer classes are continuing online, Erin was ready to return to Philadelphia. Her apartment had been paid through August, and she had per diem work opportunities that weren't happening in Rochester.  Drexel is attempting a hybrid teaching model in the fall... but as mentioned before, this will most likely require patience and adjustment depending on how COVID-19 plays out.

But, "home" for Erin now is Philly, and whether classes are on line or in person, she was ready to go. So, we packed up the RAV-4 and she and I headed across the midwest. (Grateful that my bosses were understanding of my previously made plans and let me take PTO for our road trip.)

This little taste of travel reminds me that I love to see new places and we enjoyed checking out gritty, industrial Pittsburgh and driving through the beauty of the Allegheny Plateau and Cumberland Valley of western and central Pennsylvania.

So now Erin is back in her adopted city. She has her car, her apartment, her friends. She'll be a junior in college come September. The world is her oyster. The pandemic may have slowed her down, but it won't stop her. Go get 'em, sweetie.