JUGHEADS
Youth Juggling Company, LLC
5905 Concord Avenue
Edina, MN 55424
jugheads@comcast.net
or 952.926.0896

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January 2003

“THANK YOU”

As most of you know, my 15-year-old nephew, E. Andre Larrea, was run over and killed in Miami while walking home from school on Dec. 3. (Incidentally, all parties involved, including the two teens who ran into the street and caused the driver to swerve into Andre in the median, were negligent, and therefore, no criminal or civil charges are being pursued.) Other than my mom’s death from leukemia at age 51, my family has never faced a crisis quite like this. I’ll comment more in my “Platform,” but I want to take this space to say “thank you” to the dozens of cards we received from JUGHEADS families offering their condolences to Wendy and me.

Also, although she neither expects it nor desires it, I want to publicly thank Mary Watson for taking over the entire JUGHEADS program from Dec. 4-12 so that Wendy and I could be with my sister, Jean, and her family. Without Mary, and her assistance from Ultimate Club member and son Billy Watson, I’d probably have shut the program down for the week. We also just lost our 51 year-old pastor at Colony Park Church, Tom Mabe, to a massive heart attack New Year’s Day. Still reeling a bit from Andre’s death, Pastor Tom’s death causes me to reflect even deeper into my own life. I learned at his funeral that the Chinese have two symbols for “crisis”: danger and opportunity. Thank you for using the latter meaning to bless us last month. Bonds have been strengthened; there has been gain through loss; and life has become even more precious.