This is my recap of the Helping Hands Foundation’s 2014 Winter Outing. Read about Saturday here and Sunday here.
If there’s one thing I’ll remember about this year’s Helping Hands Foundation winter outing, it’s this:
Thank goodness nobody was recording me during my talent show performance.
For real, though, this year’s event was awesome; just like I expected it to be. Those of us who attended were happy benefactors, basking in the leadership of amazing folks like Patti, Vennessa and Dayna. Ok, enough wordplay. The leadership of the HHF is incredible and they do such a fantastic job with the event. Bravo to all who helped!
I’m going to write three posts, broken down as such: Friday, Saturday and Sunday/Travel Misadventures.
So…here’s Friday.
My experience this year started WAY better than last: I didn’t miss the bus! I left my house at 345am, took a bus to Milwaukee at 430am, left for Boston (with a pit-stop in Cleveland) at 8am and arrived a bit after 1pm. Long, but uneventful. The plan was to meet-up with my good friend, Tony Memmel, and new friend, Nicole Kelly, at Logan Airport and head to the hotel together. After wandering around for a while, I finally found Nicole and then Tony found us. Our friend Annie picked us up and off we went! While in the van, I posted this update:
Inevitable
We arrived to the hotel, checked in, I watched some Ultimate Dodgeball on NESN, and then we got to greeting! It was so fun to meet people I had only known online up to that point. People like Rebekah Marine.
The beautiful and talented, Ms. Rebekah Marine
I actually had the opportunity to interview Beka a few months ago, but the recording didn’t work. We’re in the process of recording again and after this weekend, I’m excited to give it another try! Beka is funny and kind and fun and gracious…I’m so happy to call her a friend. I asked her what her favorite part of the weekend was afterwards and she said, very matter of fact, “The kids!” She has a heart to help and it showed this weekend.
It was also a blast to reconnect with old friends like Stacey and Mike, Kristy, Valerie, Molly and Ryan (from the LFP), Elizabeth, the Davis’s, the Labrecques…and of course my son, Nick Newell.
Father and son, together again.
Nick isn’t actually my son, but don’t tell him that. As luck would have it, out of all the room combinations in the entire hotel, we had adjoining rooms. It was basically the best.
For dinner we were treated to a nice buffet. Now, I’d remiss if I didn’t point out the irony of having a buffet at a conference for people with hand differences. Buffets are basically our kryptonite. It’s not that we can’t do them, it’s just that we try not to break a sweat as balance out plates and pile food onto them. Fabulous dinner, but we did think it was funny. The rest of the night we just hung out, laughed, smiled, shook hands, hugged, made new friends…
And thought about how awesome Saturday was going to be.
Beka and Nick rocked their LOH shirts, too!
Please make sure to add your stories in the comments below!
