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A warm filled thank you message from ADA Member, Toby Simko about the
recent Benefit events and the American Darters Association members:
First of all I’d like to commend you for the new “My ADA” section on the website. What a great idea and very useful.
Secondly, I noticed the article April Stafford wrote concerning a benefit they had in Texas for an ADA player’s family. On September 7th, my house was completely submerged in flood waters from Tropical Storm Lee. We were able to save a few household items but the water came up so quickly that for the most part the house and everything inside was destroyed…take a look at Emily and my face book pages. Almost 2 months later we’re still working on finding a place to stay and my flood insurance policy hasn’t so much as given us a penny because of the enormous paperwork challenge they are facing due to the multitude of family’s affected by the tragedy. Luckily my family is fairly large and they were able to help us salvage and clean some items. Family is one thing though and you can always expect that they’ll be there when you need them. One thing we did not expect, at least not to the extent that it was received, was the support of our ADA friends. Most likely without you even realizing it the ADA in a round about way was absolutely instrumental in helping us get back on our feet.
The first help we received was local…Andrew “Bud” Friedrich and his wife opened up their home for us to stay until we were able to find other accommodations, which we are still gratefully taking advantage of almost 2 months later. The first time I met Bud was at nationals in Chicago in 2003. One of our local shooters decided to “throw” together some of the best shooters in our area to play as a team. I’ve been addicted to the ADA nationals and have been very close friends with those shooters ever since, and without the ADA I’m sure we would have never met.
Next, there were 3 dart tournaments that were put together as a benefit on our behalf. No words could express how appreciative we are for the friends we’ve made, locally and internationally, because of the ADA and Nationals. So, a great big thank you to Lynelle Wagner, Mark Fair and the rest of our ADA family in our area, Harrisburg Pennsylvania. A great big thank you to Gusto’s Bar & Grill, Brian & Joy Lewandowski, the Pantazes family and the rest of our ADA family in Emily’s hometown, Joliet Illinois. Finally, more of an unexpected great big thank you (mostly because our only ties to this area are the ADA & darts) to Cyndi & Alan Johnson, Carrie Atkins and the rest of our ADA family in Newport News, Virginia. Each one of these communities came together thru the ADA and darts to support us in our time of tragedy.
The ADA has been a big part of my life and this tragedy made me realize the magnitude of that statement even more so. The greatest and biggest thank you to Glenn Remick for having the vision and making this all possible. I’m sure it wasn’t his initial goal, but I wish he could see how he has succeeded in bringing people together and how in essence he created an international family. Thank you Gloria, Karl and Sarah for continuing to grow his vision. I know he would be extremely proud of how you all are carrying on with his legacy. I consider myself lucky to be a part of something so tremendous.
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