Wrestling community,
I have included below a
copy of an email that I had distributed to all of the USA Wrestling Club Directors on January 22, 2002. If you
would like to contribute in some form to the situation described below you may contact
the Director of your local club to offer
your help. In an effort to help the Poulin family in the very near future and
because I’m not aware of the process to setup a separate trust account for the
family I am requesting that anyone who might want to contribute any funds to
please do so by sending a check written to USAWCT at P.O.
Box 33 Ledyard, CT 06339. Please include a note indicating that the money is
for Karlee-Ann.
Please visit the Donation List
of individuals / groups who have contributed. The current plan is to
present the collected amount to the Poulin family at the Kids State
Championships on March 3, 2002. Thank
you so much.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Directors,
Please take the time and
carefully read this message. Out of all the messages that I have sent you these
past few months this one is by far the most important one that I have written.
If we do only one thing right this year, and we have done many good things
already, let's really put our heads together and try and make a difference
here. I know we can if we all come together.
Here is the situation- I
have been made aware that we have a young wrestling father here in CT that is
battling something that all of us parents fear, a child with a life threatening
illness. The gentleman's name is James Poulin and it is his 4 year old
daughter, Karlee-Ann, who has been fighting Leukemia for the past two (2) and
one-half years. Karlee-Ann is only 4 years old.
James is a Windham High
grad where he wrestled there and won many awards. Not that this makes any
difference but I'm identifying some of his accomplishments here
only to help you remember
and maybe make that personal connection.
·
1988 (Sophomore) Class L Champion; 3rd in the State Open; 6th at New
England's
·
1989 (Junior) Class L Champion; State Open Runner-up; 5th at New
England's
·
1990 (Senior) Class L Champion; State Open Champion; New England
Champion & Runner-up at the prestigious High School Nationals
James came back to
wrestling by coaching at the youth level four (4) years ago with Greg LaFlam.
Because of his daughters recent condition James has been unable to coach this
year where he has a few boys who are following in their fathers footsteps. He
has missed a considerable amount of time from work to be with his daughter as
well.
I'm asking for your ideas.
How is it that all of us in this close wrestling community might come together
and help one of our family members in need? Just about every young family
experiences tough financial situations and ones with sick children I can only
assume must be much worse. Please reply back to me or talk with me this weekend
at the Somers tournament to see if we can make some sort of difference. I'm
sure anything that we might possibly be able to do would be greatly appreciated.
Just some thoughts-
·
take donations at the tournament door (we would / should provide a
informational flyer)
·
50-50 raffle at each tournament or any directors wishing to participate
·
an agreed-upon amount from our USA account. I would like all of us to all
be in agreement with not only the gesture but the amount as well.
·
charge a nominal $1 admission to only the state championships to go
toward this cause
·
request donations through our website
I will be looking to see if
Karlee-Ann is presently part of the Make-A-Wish foundations list of children
and if not, find out if she qualifies to be on this list. If so, I will do
everything that I can to ensure that she will be the CT child who we (USAWCT)
will be helping when we grant a wish this summer. For those of you who don't
know yet, I have arranged for a group of Iowa Champions to come to CT and put
on what is going to be a tremendous 3-day commuter camp in June and July.
Proceeds from this camp will be directed to the CT chapter of Make-A-Wish. No
money from our USA account will be going to support this. This money is coming
directly from the group of Iowa wrestlers. I would hope that for solely the
reason I have described above that we make sure that we all try and support
these camps. The average cost of a child's wish is $6,000. Karlee-Ann's might
be more. I will see to it that any money given by the Iowa group that is above
that amount needed to grant a wish be directed to James Poulin and his family.
I am including a flyer
about the Iowa Camps here so that you might begin promoting it. It will
certainly aide someone in need not to mention 10 Iowa Champions coming to CT to
share their secrets and experiences!!!
I'm sorry if I offend any
of you who choose to select your own charities. Please continue to help in your
own way. I just thought it wouldn't be right if I did not share this with all
of you. Hope to hear from each of you soon.
Sincerely,
Mike Quibble
USAWCT State Director