Why you should play in the Orangeyes Open.

[CNYCentralCuse]

This message is intended for lurkers of this board and those who only knew Dan from this forum.

I apologize for the post sounding like the Drew Allen fan who visited last year, but this needs to be posted with the tournament, as Tom posted above, being 11 days away.

If you knew him in real life, then you obviously don't need me to tell you why you need to be at this event.

But for my friends here who didn't get to meet him, please read:

You see for about 5-6 years that's all I knew him as, Orangeyes. I knew that he made the start of my days a heck of a lot better because I'd read those articles, but that's about it. He made me look like a genius at work, quite frankly, with all the stories I knew about.

Fast forward to, as I documented in this story: http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=1069361#.U_KuKE3jiM8

...When I first finally got to interact with Dan and eventually meet him. My life was changed forever and he created a friendship that I'll always cherish.

There's many of you that I haven't met, that perhaps I'll get to meet at the Orangeyes Open and perhaps spark a friendship.

Obviously, and unfortunately, those of you who didn't meet him in person or perhaps only in passing weren't able to be blessed by his friendship.

But you can now, do your best to honor him. Honor the man that he was and his legacy that will live here and in this entire town forever.

WAR DAMN ORANGEYES!

 

[llandz]

At some point a couple of years ago I mentioned that my son had crohn's disease. Immediately I got a personal message from Dan. The message is kind of sad to read now as Dan felt he had a magic answer to crohn's in a probiotic that he was taking. He wanted to make sure that my son knew about it. Unfortunately in hindsight I now know it was not the magic Dan thought it was, but I am sure it bought Dan a large amount of time where he felt pretty good.

With crohn's disease you go from being in some sort of remission to not and back and forth. My son has never been at 100% since he was 14. Actually he was pretty close after his surgery 3 and a half years ago. In that, his first surgery, he had parts of his intestines removed, and a portion of his stomach wall removed as the intestines were so infected that they attached themselves to the stomach wall. I think my son had about 2-3 perfect weeks. Then he had to start his humira injections which caused another set of problems. Right now my son, who is such a workaholic, is not on any treatment as he is too busy to go to the Dr. for a refill. It took him several extra years to finish college since he had to stop so many times as he was too ill to even leave his apartment for weeks. He is so excited to be living his dream of making video/computer games that he has not taken a day off from work in almost 2 years. As his mother, I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. Every day I wonder if this is the day that I will get the call that he is in the hospital for what will ultimately be his 2nd surgery. He knows that the next surgery will most likely result in a colostomy bag. He finally has come to terms with this. For a while I figured he might commit suicide before getting a colostomy. He now tells me oh yea I know I will have a colostomy bag at some point. I think since he loves working so much and loving what he does he no longer cares as much about it. He is 6 feet tall and has never weighed more that 130 pounds. No matter how much he eats, he does not absorb the nutrients. Right now he is not able to eat a lot of times and he lives on Ensure. And this is considered his "in remission". Medical marijuana is his life saver, whether it is to level off the constant pain he has or enables him the chance to eat. My son just turned 31 years old. What I described above is how he has lived through his later teens and 20s.

I know I have been much more graphic than I usually am, but the point is this is what Dan lost his fight to. Dan, like my son, was a really super nice person who had to endure something so much horrible than most of us will ever face. And they endure it for many, many years.

Please honor Dan and his commitment to Syracuse sports, Ernie Davis, all of us on this board, and make sure if you live anywhere near Syracuse you attend this event. Arizona is a little too far for me to travel, and I will be helping my other son move from Dallas to Toronto. In future years, I will try to come in from Arizona for this event. If for any reason you can not attend, make sure you look for information as to where to make a donation in Dan's honor and to help others not have the unfortunate end from crohn's and colitis that took Dan from us.

Thank you for helping eradicate this awful disease. This is our ice bucket challenge!!
Linda

 

[Cheriehoop]

Linda, thank you for sharing your story. There's nothing worse than watching a loved one, particularly one's child, suffer. Most helpless feeling in the world.

Thank you Niko, for your heartfelt reminder of the tournament and what Dan meant to us all.

After Dan passed, everyone was asking, posting of ways to donate, help remember Dan. This golf tournament is our chance to put words into true action. This is the way that Dan's family knows would be the most meaningful way to honor him, by donating to conquer the horrific disease that took his life.

 

[CanadianSU]

Wow. Great Posts. As I have said, getting absolutely no news about College Sports in Canada, Dan was my go to guy, every morning 7:15 am before I head out, I knew about all things Orange.

Ps: if your son ever comes up to Canada, i would be happy to put him to work at Ubisoft, as we are always looking for a hardworking employee in the video game industry. GO ORANGE. Sounds like one hell of a fighter.

 

[llandz]

Wow. Great Posts. As I have said, getting absolutely no news about College Sports in Canada, Dan was my go to guy, every morning 7:15 am before I head out, I knew about all things Orange.

Ps: if your son ever comes up to Canada, i would be happy to put him to work at Ubisoft, as we are always looking for a hardworking employee in the video game industry. GO ORANGE. Sounds like one hell of a fighter.

My other son is moving to Toronto. Where is Ubisoft located? Currently my crohn's son is in Seattle working on a start up game. Here is the company http://www.motiga.com/
and here is the game http://www.gogigantic.com/. He also worked on another start up, and in grad school he worked for Disney on Infinity. What do you do for Ubisoft? Currently my son is a network programmer. Last job he was a platform engineer.
As for my other son, he walked away from his job of 10 years, and is moving to Toronto and looking for a finance job there. We lived in Toronto when he was a newborn (he was born in the US) until he was 2. He loves Toronto, and is in the middle of this whole process. If you are in that area I will be there a couple of times this fall. I lived in Toronto for the SU v Indiana NCAA final game. No one knew from basketball at all then. I watched downtown with some of my husband work friends, and they thought I was crazy the way I cried when we lost. I will have to plan my trips to visit him in Toronto around all of the games I will not be able to see while I am there, lol. Oh, Duke game is then, nope I can't come. What? You are getting married then? Sorry not a good time for me, lol.

 

[CanadianSU]

My other son is moving to Toronto. Where is Ubisoft located? Currently my crohn's son is in Seattle working on a start up game. Here is the company http://www.motiga.com/
and here is the game http://www.gogigantic.com/. He also worked on another start up, and in grad school he worked for Disney on Infinity. What do you do for Ubisoft? Currently my son is a network programmer. Last job he was a platform engineer.
As for my other son, he walked away from his job of 10 years, and is moving to Toronto and looking for a finance job there. We lived in Toronto when he was a newborn (he was born in the US) until he was 2. He loves Toronto, and is in the middle of this whole process. If you are in that area I will be there a couple of times this fall. I lived in Toronto for the SU v Indiana NCAA final game. No one knew from basketball at all then. I watched downtown with some of my husband work friends, and they thought I was crazy the way I cried when we lost. I will have to plan my trips to visit him in Toronto around all of the games I will not be able to see while I am there, lol. Oh, Duke game is then, nope I can't come. What? You are getting married then? Sorry not a good time for me, lol.

Ubisoft is based in Montreal, Quebec however, we have a downtown location in Toronto. Currently I am a developer for Assasins Creed Unity (ask your sons aha) having that cuse degree landed me a promotion this year. Very excited to finish this product.

His game looks awesome!!! Seriously, I have a lot of connections and if he is ever up here and looking around I could fit him in at Ubisoft, because he certainly looks like he knows what he is doing (that game looks sweet) And is a cuse fan. Toronto is an awesome city (cept for the damn traffic), hope your other son finds a finance job! Best of luck.