Tag: Langley Thunder

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Be The Best.

American Idol, Disneyland and a Port Moody trail.

These three things have a lot in common, at least I hope they do because I’ve committed to that as the title of this blog post.

I caught some of the ‘new’ American Idol last night with new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez joining Randy Jackson.

As the contestants did their thing they were either ‘sent to Hollywood!’ or rejected.

What struck me was the excitement and pure joy from the families of the young singers who made it to the next level.  You saw Moms and Dads hugging and jumping and crying.  For a moment I thought about lost future memories.

During a commercial break I saw an ad campaign being used by Disney.  They actually take real home footage from parents surprising their kids about going to Disneyland or at the resort itself.  You can see it here.  It’s all about making family memories.

That brings me to Port Moody.  During the Christmas break I visited a dear friend and former colleague (now retired) from BCIT, Sandie.  She was sort of like the ‘mom’ in our Registrar’s Office Department for many years.  One of the things she had by her desk was a bulletin board full of pictures of staff and their families.  Of course it grew over the years.  It was an amazing place to see the passage of time.

We look a walk along the shores of the inlet at Port Moody.  What a great place.  The reason I’m telling you this now is I look literally 15 minutes last weekend to put the following faux movie trailer together using the images from that walk.  It’s in the newest version of iMovie which comes on every Mac.  This isn’t really a Mac ad, but sort of is.

The point is that memories are amazing.  All of the great memories we’ve had together as a family are helping now in our darkest hours.

I’m simply blown away at the ability of today’s technology to take these memories and put them into a format that is useable, fun and easy to do.  I decided to use the movie trailer template and have a little fun so you could imagine what you can do with your family memory video footage!

Have a great day.

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Be The Best.

Interview with God?

Ever thought of having an interview with God?

I think we’ve all probably had a few questions we’d like answered from time to time.

Over the past months we’ve been supported by people of all faiths, backgrounds and cultures.

It’s been amazing.

Last week we were sent this link to this Interview with God.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but once I started the slide show thing-a-ma-jig I watched till the end.

Each question and answer is thought-provoking and could be pondered for hours or days.

I thought I would share here.

http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/

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Be The Best.

Happy Birthday Chris!

So many people have told us or emailed us about how they thought of us over Christmas.

I know so many more think of us often and are thinking of us now as we mark what would have been Chris’ 18th birthday tomorrow even if they don’t or can’t tell us.

We are exactly the same way.

We’ve been following the story of the Berg family in Mission and Gillian Berg’s amazing strength and very real highs and lows as she takes care of her family and slowly moves forward with each day.

You can follow and support with your thoughts and prayers through: http://gillianb-journeying.blogspot.com/

The reason I say we are the same is that our hearts go out to Gillian and her family, but we don’t know them personally.  Our thoughts and prayers are with them, but we haven’t verbalized that to them.  For now we will support by reading, caring and praying.  Just as we’ve done, she can see by the blog views how so many people are supporting them.

We know that’s what people do for us all the time.

As we approach Chris’ birthday tomorrow, we don’t have any big public events happening.  A few of his school buds will drop by.  As a family, we’ll head to our favourite steakhouse for a big steak dinner and piece of ice cream cake.  Chris was a fitness and health food fanatic, but he would eat steak and ice cream cake…and we’ll have some in his honour tomorrow night.

So the question is always, what can I do?  What should I do?  I don’t know them very well, or even if I do, I’m not sure what to do.

Here’s the solution.

We’d ask everyone who reads this blog to do some little thing in honour of Chris tomorrow.

Here’s a few ideas.

1. push-ups – even doing one or two in his name would be cool

2. make a toast when you have dinner

3. hug your kids

4. hug your parents

5. eat some yogurt (he would eat probably 4-6 per day)

6. wish him a happy birthday verbally

7. cook some eggs (yep…he ate a LOT of eggs)

There’s a few ways.

I’m sure you can think of more.

Drop us a comment if you want to share.

If you don’t, we totally get it and we want to say thank you for the continued support.

Randy, Ingrid and Max.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!

 

Jan 09 - Chris turns 16.

 

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Be The Best.

18 reasons I love my son.

1. His smile

2. His bear hugs

3. His appetite

4. The way he lit up a room

5. His passion

6. His desire

7. His intensity

8. The push-ups!

9. His lacrosse skill

10. His humour

11. His loyalty

12. His sense of team

13. His love for others

14. His eyes

15. His music

16. His focus

17. The goal to Be The Best

18. Every moment we shared on this earth and our joint hope for the future

What would be Chris’ eighteenth birthday will be celebrated this Friday, January 14.

The grief rolls in like waves on a Hawaiian North Shore surf.  It is fierce and beautiful at the same time.  We know that the level of pain can only exist because of the depth of love.

And for that we are strangely thankful.

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Be The Best.

Calgary or bust.

Over Christmas I had a bit more time to look at some history and came across this article featuring a quote from Chris.  I love the comments about team.

Funny story leading up to this tournie.  The team was raising funds to go to Calgary and had received the ‘ok’ to stand in front of certain liquor stores with jerseys on and request donations via a donation bucket.  (don’t ask why…it was easier than a car wash I guess…!)

Anyways, Chris and his buddy Brett Dobray were at a store and I noticed that they would get some people stopping and donating, but many would pass on by.  That is to be expected.  Lacrosse is a growing sport and people didn’t have an emotional connection as they might with hockey.

I had a marketing thought.

I made up some signs that said, ‘help us beat Calgary’ and ‘we’ll bodycheck an Albertan for $10’.  You should have seen the difference!  People were stopping….and donating and donating some more.  It was incredible.

What was the difference?

All of a sudden there was an emotional connection.  In BC, people love (usually in good nature) to bash Albertans!  Hey, when we’re out of the country we’re all brothers and sisters!  It’s like a brotherly competition…just watch the Canucks and Calgary or Edmonton and you get the rivalry.  It was just amazing to see people engage emotionally and then with their wallets as they connected with the BC vs Alberta challenge.  All of a sudden they felt like THEY were going to be playing simply by donating $10 or $20 bucks.

The boys loved that story and that experience…seeing how words and approach could make such a difference.

Secondly, those boys DID play for everyone of those donors and played their hearts out, winning gold, with 6 members of that team representing BC nationally later that summer.

Here’s the full story:

July 2007

The Langley Thunder Bantam A1’s traveled to Calgary over the Canada Day weekend. Forget bull riding at the Stampede, they were there for some hard hitting, fast paced box lacrosse action. Perhaps the actual thunder storm on Saturday night was a good omen for the Thunder, as the young men (just completed grade seven and eight) took on competition from all over Western Canada.

Saturday match-ups had the squad take on the Sabrecats from Calgary beating them 11-3 with Adam Gallen earning game MVP for a strong offensive performance. The Thunder continued by defeating Saskatchewan’s provincial team in the afternoon game by a score of 9-2 led by game MVP goaltender Ryley Brown who’s saves propelled the offensive charge and final decisive score.
Sunday’s games featured a strong Red Deer team with Langley prevailing by a score of 7-5. Game MVP Chris Friesen had a strong defensive showing against a physical opponent. In the afternoon game, Langley fell behind a skilled Calgary Axeman team, but rallied from a 3 goal deficit to chop the tournament defending champion Axeman 10-7. A brilliant goal and full game hustle earned Will Vandenhooven the game MVP. Having gone 4-0 in tournament play, the Thunder headed into the gold medal game against an all-star team from Calgary called the Hornets.
The game lived up to the hype with the first period ending tied at zero. The Hornets came out stinging in the 2nd period and opened up a 2-1 lead with two Langley players in the sin bin with the period ending. The Hornets capitalized on the 2-man advantage at the beginning of the 3rd by netting a goal and opening a two-goal lead. If it were not for the heroics of Ryley Brown, the Thunder goalie, the score may have been much higher. Instead of folding their tents however, the Thunder rallied led by team wide explosive defensive performance leading to goals by Brett Dobray and Michael Messenger. With the game tied Adam Gallen scored a timely goal with 1 second left on the shot clock. Langley then iced the cake with a massive defensive effort during pure pandemonium breaking in the Thunder zone. With the Hornet goalie pulled for an extra attacker Brett Dobray flew down the floor with two Hornets all over him and scored a diving empty netter for a final score of 5-3 for the Thunder.
Chris Friesen, the team captain stated, “We have been working hard at team play. Working for each other and working together. I think we did that throughout this tournament and the results we achieved were excellent”.
“I’m proud of each member of this squad. Everyone played hard and played together”, added Coach Sean Beasley.
Next up for the team is the Provincial Championships hosted in Langley this year which will be held July 18-22.
Six members of the Langley Thunder Bantam A1 team will also be representing BC in the National Tournament in August in Ontario.
Full story from lacrosse association website with picture.
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Be The Best.

Vince Gill, friends and the bigger family.

I had heard this Vince Gill song a bunch of times.

In fact I think we own the Vince Gill Christmas CD.

Only thing was, aside from the chorus, I hadn’t really ever listened to the words.

I received an email from someone thinking about us with the song attached.

I listened intently and then looked up the lyrics which I’ve put in below.

Vince Gill is an amazing artist.

His voice is full of feeling, emotion and passion.

When I understood what the song was actually about, it was that much more powerful.

Yes…Christmas is all about family and I love the last line as well.

We’re all part of a bigger family…he states, ‘we’re all children of the King of Kings’.

What I’ve loved (really!), so much about the past 9 months is people reaching out to us from all walks of life.  All religious backgrounds.  All cultures.

When you look at the big picture, we, as in the human race, are all brothers and sisters and truly children of the King of Kings.

Has Christmas been easy?

Nope.

Has knowing that we are connected to a bigger family, literally and figuratively, helped us?

Yup.

Here’s those lyrics.

———————–

It Won’t Be The Same This Year – Vince Gill

It’s time to pack our bags and hit the highway,
And head on out for Christmas holiday,
I’ll fall apart when I pull in the driveway,
It’s my first time home since brother passed away,
His favorite time of year was always Christmas,
We’ll reminisce about the days gone by,
Oh how I wish that he was still here with us,
My memories with him will never die,
(Bridge)

But when the stockings are hung,
And silent night has been sung,
And Christmas is finally here,
It won’t be the same this year,

Losing my big brother hurt so badly,
It’s help me learn what Christmas really means,
There’s nothing more important than your family,
We’re all the children of the King of Kings,
(Bridge)

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Be The Best.

Merry Chris-Max.

I’ve used that greeting for years.

No, we didn’t name the boys so we could have this built-in family pun every Christmas season…it just sort of worked out.

As I write this, we’ve had Ingrid’s side of the family over for dinner tonight.

The Ethanator was intently tracking Santa’s flight across the world via Norad’s Santa Tracking system.

Hey, if you haven’t seen it, you’ve got to check this out.

He’s right on target to visit British Columbia in the next few hours!

Ethan reminded me that we had forgotten to make name cards for the places at the table.  I asked if he could handle it and this sharp Grade 2’er took charge and wrote all the names down.  He then showed me the tag he had made for Chris.  Of course Chris needed a tag too.  I told him to add it to my plate.  It was very cool.

I mentioned at Thanksgiving that we didn’t set an extra place for Chris, but rather toasted him and acknowledged that he was with us always.  Tonight we did the same and raised our glasses and told Chris we loved him.

Then Ethan told some reindeer jokes.

Hey, did you know what the wettest animal in the world is?  Duh.  Raindeer.

That’s how it goes.

I love the eyes of a child.  Poignant. Pure. Powerful…and just plain Funny.

Merry Chris-Max to all.

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Be The Best.

Everyone wins in Sin City

What?

Everyone wins in Las Vegas right?

Of course not.

You’ve heard the other name for the town…Lost Wages.

What better place to take a bunch of underage kids for a lacrosse tournament!  Joking aside, the supervision for Burnaby Mountain Selects is always awesome and last time I checked, the fields weren’t right on the strip.

Guess what.  One of the squads…the U12 (so these are young men 12 years of age and under) won their entire division securing the victory with a come from behind win just hours ago.

That is fantastic and for all the teams, win or lose on the scoreboard, these tournaments just make you better.  The competition makes you stronger.  It’s all good.  Everyone wins.

And now for the completely unexpected.

The winners of this tournie get a cheque for $250.  I can think of a lot of things a team could buy.  All deserved.  Dinner, snacks, souvenirs, lacrosse gear, odor-be-gone for lacrosse bags, etc 🙂

Guess what they just did?

Donated the whole thing to Chris’ fund.

Here’s the pic to prove it just an hour or so ago. (see link below)

I’ve talked a lot about giving and grieving and how those go together.  This gift to us is so amazing beyond any dollar amount.  What an amazing gift.

THANK YOU boys.  THANK YOU Joyce, Brent and Jeff and the entire BMS gang.

Be The Best!

We are humbled, proud and grateful.

I think Chris might just bodycheck someone up in heaven tonight in your honour…if that’s allowed…wait, I’ll check with Rev. Jake (Chris’ Grandpa) cause I’m pretty sure there’s a lacrosse section up there!  In fact I know there is…I just wasn’t sure on the bodychecking rule…

Here’s the link to the pic: http://yfrog.com/h23kqupj

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Be The Best.

29,978 reasons to say thank you…wait, make that 30,000.

We had a few amazing emails this week.

The first was from Joyce, part of our Burnaby Mountain Selects lacrosse family.

She had the official total raised for Chris’ fund from the Chris Friesen Memorial Lacrosse shafts.

Ready? $8,261.54.  Are you kidding me?  What an incredible donation from all of those who purchased the sticks, the folks at Harrow and our amazing friends Joyce, Brent and Jeff at BMS.

The good news didn’t stop there.

Just today we received a note from Wanda at Simon Fraser with a new grand total, $29,978.45!!

Our goal was 20k.  When that was smashed, Ingrid boldly told Wanda the new goal was 30k.

When I saw that number this afternoon, the first thing I thought about was hoofing it up to SFU to put in another $25 to get us over the 30k mark.

I didn’t quite get there and then I read another email.

It was from Brent from BMS to Wanda at SFU, personally committing funds to break through the $30,000 mark.

Cool eh?

In the darkest of times we have seen such warmth, light and brightness.

We are humbled and grateful and proud and sad and happy and scared and excited.

I could add more, but you get the picture.

With a fund established at $30,000, we will be helping to change lives for a long long time..forever actually, as this fund will never stop giving money away each year and will continue to grow over time.

The first $1,000 award to a lacrosse playing SFU student will be proudly given in Chris’ name in January 2011 at the Maple Leaf Awards dinner.

What a night that will be.

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Be The Best.

Chris’ stick gets game time in Saskatoon.

Some people who get the Chris Friesen lacrosse stick are going to use it as a display and hang their medals from it.  Cool.

Some people are going to just keep it as a way to remember Chris.  Cool.

Some people are going to actually tape it up and play a little lacrosse. Cool.

Blaine Boomer did just that on the weekend in Saskatoon scoring 2 hat tricks on the way to helping BC compete for the gold against Ontario.

You can see the Be The Best stick complete with Chris’ signature.

Blaine was kind enough to don his game worn jersey and pose with his Chris Friesen stick when the Boomers dropped by on their way home to the Loops yesterday.

Love the stick.  Love the way people are going to use it.  Love the fact that it will help raise so much money for Chris’ fund which exists to help challenge lacrosse playing SFU students to Be The Best and ultimately make the world a better place through their lacrosse experience and their chosen profession.

Jim Boomer with sons Blaine and Colton