In 1993 I did some “grass roots” fundraising on the streets of DC. My first customer writes in 11 years later…

December 14, 2004

I received this email today from Brenda, wondering
if she got the right person. She sure did! A little history. In 1992 I
was the top finisher in the Olympics for the USA in the men’s kayak
class. In 1993 I was at risk of not being able to go to the USA Team trials
due to lack of cash to make the trip. In order to get the cash, 4 days
before we needed to leave, I brought my Olympic kayak and uniform to the
busy professional streets of DC during lunch break and gave a “free”
8X10 photo graph of me competing to anybody who gave me a $20 or more
donation (I had 200 of them from Champion International Paper company).
Brenda was my first customer, and she caught up with me 11 years later,
with an interesting story.

Hi Eric,

I think I have the right person. If not I guess
no harm done.

Do you remember in maybe 1992 you brought your
kayak into Washington DC (and set is up at the corner of Connecticut and
K streets) to raise funds for your team? You signed pictures in exchange
for donations. I think I got the first one of them from you (you are wearing
#3) and this year I put it to good use! Guess how?

This past summer I became a cancer patient. It
wasn’t the worst kind of cancer (thyroid) but anyway a little encouragement
went a long way. I found your picture inspiring and I set it up at my
desk (along with alot of pictures of my cousins!) to keep my spirits high.

Now I am well on the way to being fine. I thought
you would like to know you helped when you didn’t even know it! For myself,
I do not even know how to swim, but I just love watching kayaking. Now
I have to rehabilitate myself a little from not exercising for a few months!

Hope your company does wonderfully.

Thanks,

Very truly yours,

Brenda Rezvan