Tears in the lobby bar

Last week the American Heart Association-Minnesota held a volunteer appreciation event — an after-work happy hour in a pretty hotel lobby bar. I went because I’m a volunteer and because they gave me a Volunteer Impact Award for my work this year as Go Red spokesperson, ambassador, speaker, and even for this blog. It was a nice event and they said nice things about me. I am happy and honored to receive the award.

But I’m not writing about it to tell you that; I wanted to share this end-of-the-year video that was played at the event. I think it helps demonstrate the enormity of the challenge and the huge numbers of people who are working on making a difference. Being in a room full of volunteers, donors, doctors, board members, staff members, and survivors like me never, ever fails to get to me. Yep, I cried, and not just because of the extreme closeup (watch to the end and you’ll see what I mean). It’s things like this that make me feel less alone.

Thank you.