$130,000 raised for Big Brothers/Sisters and a second place finish!

‘little’ and I are fairly involved with the the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization, outside of being matched together of course.  We try to attend many group activities together and meet other matches, have a good time, and support the organization! Because of our close involvement we get a lot of ‘extra’s’ from them.  One of these particular extra’s happened to be the other day.  A wonderful group of people called the Arby’s Foundation, the charitable branch of Arby’s restaurants, puts on a wonderful charitable golfing event that supports Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities.  This was their 19th annual event and it was held at Tartan Park golf course out in Lake Elmo, MN.  It turned out the week before the event there were a few tickets that had been allocated to the BBBS group.  It just so happened that these tickets floated down through the ranks and made it to me.  There was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to take a Monday off of work and hit the links for a good cause!  My game certainly wasn’t in any shape to brag about it, but that certainly wasn’t  the point.  I wasn’t disappointed that I jumped all over this opportunity.  Plus what a great opportunity to get plugged into more people that are off the same mind as I am, in wanting to make a difference in our community.

Right when I arrived before I even got out of my car, there was a golf cart there to pick up my clubs for me, and bring them to the cart I’d be using.  I went down to sign up and got a dozen golf balls, a nice Adidas Golf shirt, and a complimentary breakfast with delicious coffee. I asked my old college roommate to join me so when he arrived we met up and hit the green for a putting competition.  Apparently I wasn’t warmed up yet, because I wasn’t even close to the cup!!  After the competition I ran into some of the BBBS folks that I’m pretty close with, and they told me I was in for a great surprise.  When I headed to my cart to get ready for the shot gun start  with my old buddy, in the cart next to us was Matt Blair, an ex-Minnesota Viking.  Turned out that we were slated to hit balls with Matt Blair, and Joey Browner (also an ex-Viking) all day.  Joey ended up not being able to make it so it was just a three some.  Matt couldn’t have been a more gracious fun golf partner, not to mention a super skilled player as well.  Just watching him swing the golf club elevated my own game way more than I could imagine.  As we carted out to our tee, literally through the morning mist which couldn’t have made for a more picturesque setting, the day only kept getting better.

The format for the tourament was each group took the best shot off of the tee then played our own ball for the rest of the hole.  Obviously because Matt was on our team we had a substantial safety net, and could take some pretty solid swings at the ball.  I was so happy that 3 of mine, and 3 of my buddies drives were the best out of 18 holes, and the rest were Matt’s.  I couldn’t believe it because this has never happened before, but my game was on!! Of course I had a few duffs here and there, but my fairway woods felt great, my short pitch game was accurate but most fun of all, my putting was spot on.  Oh it was so exciting.  I made at least 5 one putts that were 10 feet plus from the hole.  I was dropping em out of no where.  The coolest part of it was that I had a 6 time pro bowler, super bowl participant, football phenom overjoyed for my putts going in.  Matt was so elated whenever I dropped a long ball!  It was, as was the whole day, such a surreal experience.  Funny after thought, I think I felt like ‘little’ when I Matt was congratulating me.  Here’s is this far superior athlete, entrepreneur, philathropist giving me a a little snip it of his attention!  He made me feel like a million bucks.  It just became apparent to me that there is no one who couldn’t use a little mentoring in their lives! hmmm

The tournament was so well run also.  Every third hole there were three coolers of soda, Gatorade, juice, water and beer.  There was a longest drive, closest to the pin, and longest putt competition.  We could purchase a couple mulligans at the beginning of the round for $25 which I thought was hilarious as well as useful!! FOUR!!!  We had Arby’s delicious sandwiches and pasta salad placed in our carts before we even started.  I was super impressed. Everything came together for this special day too! The weather couldn’t have been warmer or cooler, just perfect.  There was a gentle breeze that was nothing but soothing and I had two of the best golfing partners a guy could ask for!

My phone was ringing off the hook from work, apparently something was going down.  It was just to bad that I accidently pushed the power button and had to enjoy silence for the rest of the day!! Shhhhhh…..

At the end of the round we headed into the clubhouse for the 19th hole reception where we had some dinner and and sat in for the award ceremony  I couldn’t contain my surprise when our team was awarded the overall second place prize! I really had felt like I played the game of my life but to even be in contention would have been great!  We got some hardware to take home with us, a nice picture with Matt Blair, the Arby’s folks, and Gloria the Big Brothers Big Sisters CEO.  Pretty good company if I do say so myself.  I had to continue to remind myself to keep my chin off of the floor because of my surprise for our placement.

Me and Matt Blair

Really the coolest part about the whole night was that Arby’s ended up raising $113,00 for BBBS.  That means that 1,000 matches will be funded for 1 whole year.  That means that 1,000 bigs will have the opportunity to make a difference in a kids life in their community.  That means that 1,000 kids will be much better prepaired for college, or the work force, self confident in themselves and their abilities, and hopefully will one day come back to give back to their community!  Even though, I skipped out on work on Monday, and had a pile of papers waiting for  me on my return, I felt so accomplished and fulfiled about my experience.  Life is about helping other people out when you can, and getting through this together, and if that means I have to spend more Monday’s out in nature, then heck, I’ll take one for the team!

The point of this blog isn’t to raise funds for the orgnaization, it’s to let you know about my experience, and through that know that there are people like the good folks at BBBS, that are making a difference, and setting up opportunities for guys like me to participate in helping others out.  I hope that someone reading this will get it in their head that they too can make a difference by volunteering, and have a blast doing it by the way, but I know that we are all busy in our own particular efforts and often can’t find the time for another activity.   Of course if you don’t have the time but would like to help out events like this where we raise awareness, or would like to support a match with any amount of donation, I know everyone affected would appreciate it.  Here’s the link to donate to a worthy cause!!

http://bit.ly/9Lzm5

Thanks anyone reading this, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities, Arby’s Foundation, Matt Blair, Tartan Park managment and Staff, Cargil, 3M, and any other donors to this great cause!

What is this sludge mister??

I went on a trip to Kansas City with a buddy from work the week before and I was way farther over 3000 miles than I care to admit, especially being the son and brother of mechanics.  They think (and they’re probably right) that I’m so derelict in my care for my car.  I really wanted to hang out with ‘little’ but I felt like if I went one more mile on the sludge (oil) in my car that everything would lock up and I’d be carless, which would be no good.  It’s incredible how I negelect the tools that are so important to me and my life.  I only appreciate them when I don’t have em.  Well,  I thought I’d like to take this situation and turn it into a teaaching moment.  I’d teach little about something I fail daily at, appreciating what we have and taking good care of our assets.
When I picked ‘little’ up I told him to go right back into the house and get his greasy clothes on because we were getting dirty this afternoon.  He looked at me, looked at his clothes, and said, “I don’t know what you mean.  I don’t have any other clothes that are different than these…” alright, onward and upward my friend!!
We went over to my house, and fired up the grill so we could have some hot charcoal ready and waiting when we were done being men and getting dirty.  ‘little’ got right to it.  I gave him the jack to ‘make the car fly’.  I showed him how to make sure he was on the frame and then start pumping.  He didn’t have enough weight to put into it so he had to jump on the handle to get the car to budge.  It took him a while but he certainly didn’t want any help from me.  We got some cardboard slats, slid em under the car and got to work.  I showed him the under parts of the car.  He was hooked.

"Let's Make It Fly"

It was so much fun to impart these skills to him.  It really made me appreciate my old man and what he did for me.  ‘little’ was tough and strong (as strong as a 10 year old can be) but delicate and definitive in what he was doing.  He couldn’t get the nut loosened up at first to drain the oil pan so I got it for him but he was quick to take back the wrench.  When he got oil from the drip on his hands he was so obviously in heaven.  He really was a true grease monkey.  I gave him a shop towel to use and without coxing he draped it from his back pocket like a veteran.  I couldn’t wipe the grin off of myself, to see him so serious.  I showed him the filter and he went to town trying to loosen it.  When replacing the filter I explained that in order to get the best seal it’s good policy to moisten the o-ring by dipping it in the old discarded oil.  He was eating up my direction and trying his hardest to understand what I was saying and why it made sense.  Bolt back in, filter back on, I showed him the dipstick and how to measure the oil level.  He filled her back up to the full line. He looked at me… “is that it?”  You could see it in his eyes, he wasn’t even close to being done. We checked and double checked the air filter, trany fluid, oil level, washer fluid level, tire pressure, wipers, turn signals, break lights, headlights, brights, power windows, power locks… It was amazing.  He was even intrigued by the double latch underneath the hood and we opened and closed the hood about 5 times.

Natural Grease Monkey

It’s fascinating seeing what excites him and what doesn’t.  The week before we had gone to the science museum (which I still need to write about) and it was so hard keeping his attention on one task at the exhibit hall.  He was all over the place and really just wanted to play around and he really wasn’t in learning about science related issues.  Here in this situation he was so set on learning more, doing more, and immersing himself in the internal combustion engine.  It was great to see him so fascinated.  Seeing inspiration in other people is one of my favorite past times.  That may sound weird but was more he was more intrigued than I’d ever seen him before and that includes cruising on the lake the week before in the fishing boat, ha ha.
This outing with ‘little’ was hands down my favorite.  I finally have tapped into something that he wants to know more about.  I’m not sure where this is going to go, but I’m sure we can find more similar activities together.

I went to grab ‘little’ from his house, I was a about 15 minutes late.  When I arrived he was waiting on his steps and I didn’t even get a chance to get out of the car before he was opening up the rear passenger door.   That’s where he sits because he’s not over 90 lbs.  He was excited about the bookstore too but I was super hungry and proposed a different idea to him.  I said, ‘You know, it’s such a nice day out, how’s about we head up to the grocery store, grab some meat, and bbq tonight?!? … or would you rather go read at the Wild Rumpus?’  It was a low move I know, because I pitched the new idea to him just so. It was kind of a set up but I knew he’d be happy about it.  

His face lit up.  ’Does that mean we’re headed over to your house?’  When I answered yes I don’t even think he could have told me what the Wild Rumpus was… he as super excited to head over to my house and check out my digs.

We went to the grocery store and went about getting our fixens for burgers and chocolate chip cookies for dessert!!  I was pushing him around on the cart and he absolutely loved it. He stood on the front and would lean out as far as he could, just laughing and having a good old time.  Every time we passed someone it was ‘excuse me’ and ‘thank you’ when they would oblige.  I absolutely adore how courteous he is! It’s very refreshing.  He really is going to be a lady killer when he get’s older! He’s just to nice to handle.

When we went to check out, we did the self check aisle and he wanted to scan everything by himself.  The produce gave him some trouble when he had to type in the numbers but he loved it.  He didn’t quite understand the idea of the credit card though.  I let him swipe it, then when we walked out, he asked why we hadn’t payed for our groceries.  I explained to him we had but he still had a confused look on his face… ahhh so much to learn and so innocent!! I’ve noticed that about him, again I’ve never had younger siblings/cousins so I’m not use to how these kids operate, but everything new he wants to try or he wants to learn about. Not only does he want to try but he wants to master it right away.  When he doesn’t get it on the first try he rarely gets frustrated, rather more determined to finish what he’s put his mind too.  There really doesn’t seem to be anything that doesn’t interest him! 

When we got home, he went snooping around the garage right away.  When he came across the mower he said, ‘hey, I’ve never tried one of these before.’ I asked him if he wanted to mow the lawn, semi joking. To be honest it needed it badly within the next couple days.  He shook his head excitedly yes.   It was really fun! I showed him the oil, filled the gas, how to work the choke, what the spark plugs were and how they operated, the self propulsion lever and how it operated.  He loved using the socket set to get the plugs out. He was particularyawed by the blade on the bottom when I flipped it on it’s side to show him the undercarriage.  We had a little safety lesson about usage and he was all ears.  I started it for him, did a round to show him how it’s done, then we pushed it together to get the feel.  I let him take a few swipes. He wore out pretty quick.  He missed a few rows but after all the lawn looked pretty solid!

'Little' Mowing the lawn

After we were done we kicked back and had some old fashioned Coca Cola, in glass bottles! I swear that stuff tastes better than the plastic bottles or cans! It was great.  

We headed inside and made some burgers.  He wanted to do everything himself.  I let him for the most part.   We actually used venison burger from last hunting season, mixed it with an egg, some torn up bread pieces and Seasonall. His favorite part was mashing it all up with his hands and letting the burger squeeze through his fingers.   I gave him a towel to drape over his shoulder so he didn’t have to wipe his hands on his shirt… he looked like a mini chef.  We fried up some bacon as the burgers were sizzling! We even got fresh ciabatta roles to bake in the oven before hand. Everything was so fresh and delicious.

'little' and I chowing down on some burgers

Don’t tell his mom, but we sat out on the back stairs with our burgers and cokes and had a belching contest.  I’m pretty sure I won but between the laughter, spilled cokes, and general hysteria it was probably a close call!! He was, of course,  sure to affirm me that it wasn’t polite to do this in mixed company.  We sure had a good laugh though.

Dessert time! We whooped up some Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chippers, real quick, and pretty much ate half of the dough between each other. It was getting kind of late so we baked a pan for Mom and bagged the rest of it, for them to bake later.  He was so excited to give her his present!

I’ve decided I should probably keep this little guy around more often… he comes over, mowes my lawn, makes me burgers, bakes me cookies, and to top it off, makes sure I’m a well mannered young man! He really is the whole package! What a guy!