A few days later we met some of the Board of Directors of Train 4 Autism for dinner at P.F. Chang's in Santa Monica. (train4autism.org) When we learned that Meg and Jeff had previous plans for one evening during our visit, I emailed Molly Rearick to see if we could meet. She immediately organized a dinner at the P.F. Chang's restaurant in Santa Monica and sent out email invitations. We arrived that Tuesday night knowing no one and left with 7 and 1/2 new friends (the 1/2 being Ben and Suzana Davidson's adorable baby daughter Nola). Shelly Overton was the first to arrive and instantly made us feel at ease, as though we had known her for years. Ben and Suzana arrived with Nola next, and Nola charmed our socks off! Ben Fesagaiga and Ling Esangga came in soon after, bearing gifts for Asia - a Train 4 Autism technical shirt, which she proudly wore the next day on her run, a hat and wrist sweat band. Molly and Anthony Altomare arrived after some traffic snafus. We spent a wonderful evening learning about the group's history, plans for the future, and how we can help. After Shelly mentioned that there are some fine races in California, Asia spent the evening lobbying for future trips back to race. After snapping pictures of everyone, all too soon the evening was over. But I'm sure we'll meet again, and I know we'll be spreading the word about Train 4 Autism at races here in Michigan.
No comments:
Post a Comment