It was a fantastic day! Sunny and warm to start off with.
We want to thank all our family, friends and the Whitemouth School students and teachers who participated in the walk in person and in spirit!
A special thank you to Diana and Sharon from the ALS Society, Jennifer from the Whitemouth school who coordinated the walk, Lorraine Forester who launched the whole idea, Kyla who organized "Team Rick", Kent and gang for "Team Sperling", Lorna for the "Team Rick" hats, Winnipeg Outfitters for the "Team Rick" tshirts, Dunnrite Foods for their sponsorship and prizes, Jake and Val for opening their home to all and the folks of Whitemouth.
The day was a tremendous success with the ALS Society raising over $13,000! Our granddaughter Tia won a prize for raising the most amount of the students.
The day started out with family and friends coming from all over. Stroller after stroller after stroller lined the sidewalks. lol We joked that we could have been called "Team Stroller".
For us there were so many variety of emotions of the day. We experienced such great joy in seeing people come out especially on the weekday and when Rick's old school mates showed up as a surprise to him "Team Sperling" wow!!! Then as we walked with everyone down the streets it was like what are we doing here...it just doesn't seem real sometimes!
Rick here....
I don't know how Joan and Kent did it. They kept me completely in the dark about the existence of "Team Sperling". I looked up and saw all these purple tshirts pouring out of a big van. I thought "that is neat there is another team here and I wonder who they are". Joan ran ahead of me and I heard her say you must be Kent. I am not often caught for words but when I saw all my old friends...most of whom I have not seen for 30 or 35 years. I lost it!!!
Some of these folks I had not seen since grade 8. I choked back the tears and tried to figure out who was who. I was completely overwhelmed! I was humbled and honoured all at the same time! What an incredible surprise and what an incredible group! What an incredible town!!!
Well...needless to say after the walk we retired to the good old Whitemouth Hotel to catch up on 35 years. It turned into a few hours. We laughed...and laughed...and told stories and laughed some more! What a time!!! We then moved the party over to the suite where we will be staying and spent most of the afternoon laughing and laughing and telling stories and did I say laughing!!!
A few highlights...seems the gang had picked up a big box of doughnuts on the way out to Whitemouth. As they parked the van right in front of the local RCMP detachment which is across from the school it only seemed right that the doughnut box be autographed and left on the front step of the cop shop!!! A short time later several of the guys got their picture taken with one of the officers. Quite a joke seeing that we spent a lot of our time in our teenage years avoiding those guys! Someone joked that it must be different to not have the cops taking the pictures! lol
Anyhow, it was one of the most memorable afternoons of my life! A big THANK YOU to Kent, Don, Rob, Don, Glenn, Gordie, Anne and Fritz, and Jill. I also want to thank Ruth and Jean out in Carmen for their help in the fund raising.
Joan here...I want to thank "Team Sperling" also for really making me feel welcome and accepted. Mercifully they kept all the "Rick" stories quite decent!!! :) All that laughing was so good for the soul!!! Thanks!!!
"Team Sperling"
