It’s Friday night and we’re getting packed to head to Endicott tomorrow morning. We were going to leave this morning, but we wanted to hang around and watch the Rail Jam the Friends of Sam were throwing tonight,

The extra day was nice.. We got to spend a little extra time with my folks this morning. We got the kids up to say good bye to them… Gabe had been up till 2:30 and max (I thin) till 5.. they were pretty sleepy..

It was nice having them up..

I spent the middle of the day putting the finishing touches on the rail I built for Gabe.  The last steps were putting on the wooden feet.

Before I did I hid some messages under the metal footings. I try to put a secret message like this in everything I build.. It’s fun to find them when I rebuild something years later.

Somehow.. that managed to take most of the day.. before I new it it was 5PM and time for the Rail Jam at Bolton. Ralph had organized the whole thing.. There were 3 categories.. skiers, 14 and below and 15 and above.. They had about 17 kids.. It was great watching them do the rails..   The were three rails.. the down rail that Ralph and his dad, Marc just built, the Sam rail that Sawyer and Neal built and the butter box.

the pictures are a bit wobbly because of the low light… but they look sort of cool, so I’m including them anyway.

I like this blurred one of Gabe.

After the Jam, everyone gathered on the porch to her the winners..

Zack was there too..

Ralph called out the winners.. Gabe came in 3rd in the under 14’s.. Whoo hooo

Luke came in first in the above 15’s.. he got a skateboard deck a case of red bull and $100 .. not bad for a night of fun…  The rest of the take goes to the Friends of Sam for their good works..  These kids are so awesome..

The Jam ended with a prize toss off the porch.. It was a good lead in for the Night Riders competitions that start in a few weeks.

After a bite in the Tavern, I went back to the car to go home and start packing.. I found my glasses in the snow.. this would have been the fourth pair I lost or destroyed this week.. Thank goodness it will only be 3..  BTW. One of the messed up ones was a pair of safty glasses that got  stopped a hot  blob of metal that was coming at my face.. (I always  wear ’em… and that’s why !) 

There were two packages waiting for us at home this afternoon. One was from Stacie. In it was a box from  All Children’s Hospital , the place where Sam went after his accident. They sent us a beautiful silver heart ornament with Sam’s name on it. I could feel my own heart come into my throat when I opened it up. It’s really beautiful..

The second package was from LifeLink, the organization that orchestrated Sam’s organ donations. Inside was a really wonderful letter from ‘Bob’.. the guy who received Sam’s left Kidney. LifeLink has a policy of editing the letters to maintain peoples anonymity on both ends of a transplant.. so they had whited out last names, addresses and phone numbers.. but it didn’t keep the warm grateful message from coming across loud and clear.  Bob has 2 teenage kids. He had been on dialysis for several years and was growing weaker and was unable to travel. Since  his transplant, his health has returned and he’s feeling great. It turns out that Bob has connections to Vermont Thanks to Sam’s strong kidney  he was able to travel up here recently to visit relatives. When he was up here, he climbed Killington and drank a Red Bull in honor of Sam at the top. Not only that, but he sent us the can !!! I reread the letter several times.. I guess there’s no Hallmark Card for a situation  like this..   It’s so wonderful to know that Sam’s strong life energy is helping soemone live out there life fully. Even though there’s great sadness in the situation, I can’t find words to say how good that makes me feel.
Good luck Bob….. (if you’re reading this)  thanks so much for writing.. . Please keep in touch !

Way to go Sam… We all love you. G’nite all..
-me