On Saturday night, I attended a fund raiser for the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital.
As a Gopher fan, a couple things stood out.
Kyle Tanner spoke to the crowd. As you may recall, he was the young man with Fanconi anemia who used a T-shirt cannon to deliver Justin Jeunemann’s scholarship. Kyle was the highlight of the evening, with a smart, funny, articulate and engaging message. He seemed as sincere in his admiration for PJ as in his pride in pointing out his mother was in the crowd on Mother’s Day eve. The two shared a standing ovation.
PJ appeared a few times via recorded video. The first time he said he could not be there because he was attending a different charity event. I thought that was odd, but then I learned that one of the live auction items was a dinner with the Fleck’s at their home cooked by a professional chef:
https://aesbid.com/WFSAT18/Item?id=3&isLive=True
If I recall correctly, the dinner went for $15000. I was surprised that with all the pressures on their calendar, PJ and Heather were willing to give a second night to a charity to make up for giving last Saturday night to different charity.
I know there are folks that would discount this as just part of his job, or maybe contractually required, or 9 scholarships, or year zero, or whatever. And yes, he does make himself an easy target from time to time. But his commitment to the community is real. I find that easy to admire.
As a Gopher fan, a couple things stood out.
Kyle Tanner spoke to the crowd. As you may recall, he was the young man with Fanconi anemia who used a T-shirt cannon to deliver Justin Jeunemann’s scholarship. Kyle was the highlight of the evening, with a smart, funny, articulate and engaging message. He seemed as sincere in his admiration for PJ as in his pride in pointing out his mother was in the crowd on Mother’s Day eve. The two shared a standing ovation.
PJ appeared a few times via recorded video. The first time he said he could not be there because he was attending a different charity event. I thought that was odd, but then I learned that one of the live auction items was a dinner with the Fleck’s at their home cooked by a professional chef:
https://aesbid.com/WFSAT18/Item?id=3&isLive=True
If I recall correctly, the dinner went for $15000. I was surprised that with all the pressures on their calendar, PJ and Heather were willing to give a second night to a charity to make up for giving last Saturday night to different charity.
I know there are folks that would discount this as just part of his job, or maybe contractually required, or 9 scholarships, or year zero, or whatever. And yes, he does make himself an easy target from time to time. But his commitment to the community is real. I find that easy to admire.