For you who live on the North Shore of MA.....

[IRGuy]

I hope this post is not out of place here, because it only concerns a few of you who live on the North Shore of MA...

On Saturday, September 20, starting at 12:30, there will be a parade in Marblehead to honor two very special people, Maureen McKinnon-Tucker and Tim Angle.. two Marblehead residents who are Paralympic athletes, who have just finished competing in the Paralympics in China.

I know Maureen personally, as she is a member of Jubilee Yacht Club, as am I. She and I raced against each other in our club sailboat races many times, crewing for mutual friends. She is a very special person, to say the least.

Several years ago she and her fiance (now husband) were in Maine waiting at a ferry slip, when she stepped back to let someone pass.. in doing so she stepped backwards off a seawall, and fell in a sitting position onto hard packed sand, 12 feet below, breaking her back and leaving her permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

After a protracted recovery she became wheelchair mobile, was married, and now has two children. Her youngest, now 1 1/2, was diagnosed with a brain tumor shortly after birth, but is now apparently on his way to recovery after several critical operations and a chemo program.

To survive these hardships by themselves might make her a "special person".. but she did not let her accident and supposed "handicap" stop her from enjoying her passion for sailing. She became involved in a sailing program for "handicapped" people, and over the course of several years she became involved in competitive sailboat racing, eventually working her way to competing on a regional and then national level. She committed a few years ago to go as far as her capabilities would take her.

Last week she and her partner from CA won a Paralympics gold medal in a two person spinnaker boat class, competing against the best paralympic sailors from ten other countries. I can’t begin to tell you the expense, time commitment, and dedication (on the part of she and her husband) this achievement has cost. To even compete on a world class level is a huge accomplishment, never mind winning a gold medal.

I can’t be there attending the parade for Maureen and Tim, but I am asking any of you who could be to go to the parade in my place and cheer for them. They certainly deserve all the cheers that are sent their way!

Thanks.