Up early for breakfast with Dave Pike and his wife Bonnie. Dave has led quite a life that includes owning/operating one of Denver’s first ever sports bars (Zang’s). He’s currently in the fight for his life as an aggressive cancer has spread to his brain. Despite the challenges we had a terrific time talking about life and strolling down memory lane.
It was then off to the home of Todd and Shannon Clifford. Todd is a 30 year vet of the Lakewood PD and a recent appendectomy resulted in the difficult discovery of stage four pancreatic cancer. The battle is going to be a tough one, but this father and husband is as tough as they get! Thanks to an incredible Dawg Bowl and the support of Todd’s incredible support system , we were able to ease the burden a bit by handing the family a check for nearly $65k!
The day was just getting started when I headed to the Edge Ice Arena to meet up with eleven year old Hunter Murphy and his closest hockey buddies. Hunter has been diagnosed with bone cancer and has been told his hockey career will likely be over after a complicated surgery coming up in late July. We took the opportunity to have Hunter and his teammates take our Top Dawgs, including Sam Girard, Milan Hejduk, Toby Petersen and Mikey Eyssimont. Smiles were in abundance as Hunter lived out his wildest hockey fantasies and helped take down the NHLers in a shootout!
Still not done, it was then off to Bout Time Pub to meet Taylor Ludy. Taylor is local goalie that suffered a horrific injury in April when a skate blade nearly severed his left leg. His recovery has been almost miraculous as he’s up and about and already looking at the calendar for his emotional return to the ice! We were joined by many of Taylor’s friends and teammates and able to present this terrific young man a check for $12k to ease the financial burden that the accident has taken on Taylor.
Exhausted, but not done, I grabbed my hot date, made the trek to Ball Arena and turned back the clock for a night of “New Kids on the Block”. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but they were really good and really fun! And a special “thank you” to KSE for suite tix!
Phew! What a day, and what a way to cap off a hectic, but productive “busy”’season for this old guy!
I’ll be taking my first day off in couple of months today, but don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change this life for the world! Here’s to making the world a better place!
