Corona Virus Quarantine Day #60: The lost art of the Letter: May 18, 2020

Ellen: My favorite thing about writing and receiving letters during the corona virus is that it’s our only way to communicate other than zoom meetings.  I like getting letters from friends and family.

Fiona: My favorite thing about writing and receiving letters during the corona virus is that it makes me happy when I write them and it also makes me happy to get them back.  I hope I can make people’s day with my letters.

Fiona keeps all of hers in the drawer of her bed.

Finley: My favorite thing about writing and receiving letters during the corona virus is that you get to have the feeling of happiness of giving the letter and I like getting letters.

Finley’s letters sit on his shelf.  I think it’s super sweet that they keep them all.

Cooper: My favorite thing about writing and receiving letters during the corona virus is that you can know what everyone is doing and it is fun to get cards in the mail.

Cooper keeps his in his locker!  

Fletcher: My favorite thing about writing and receiving letters during the corona virus is getting letters from Jack.

Most of you know how I feel about hand written notes.  They are hands down my favorite thing ever.  I love hand written cards for Mother’s Day, birthdays and every day in between.

I’m an even bigger fan of the letter or note for no reason.

Gonna be honest…Sunday I was feeling a little irritated about some things that were happening in my professional world and I opened up my email at 9:50pm to check on something and my boss had forwarded me an email that was sent to him.

This email was sent to him by a woman named Kathy DeBoer.  For those of you that don’t know her, she’s the head of the American Volleyball Coaches Association and she is a total rock star.  This woman is on every committee that has ever existed.  Beach volleyball in college?  Yep.  That was pretty much her.  She knows every coach, athletic director and “sports” person that is involved in any way with volleyball.  She fights for our sport, she lives and breathes it and she is one of the reasons it is relevant in today’s world.

So she’s a very busy, super overcommitted, get sh** done kind of lady…so totally my kind of girl.

Kathy took time out of her very busy day to send an email to my bosses, men, I should mention, she’s never met.  Men she had to seek out. Knowing Kathy, the way I do, she just got on our web-site and looked them up and then fired off the email.

But. That. Takes. Time.

Precious time.  Time, this woman does not have.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Kathy for many years now.  The AVCA awarded me with a coaching award in 2015 and that was really when Kathy approached me to be a leader in their organization.  When the NCAA tournament was here in Kansas City in 2017 she asked me to work for the AVCA and help organize all the volunteers for court demonstrations.  That ended up being about 250 people and it was quite the job to coordinate.  But…I loved it.  It was so much fun to see how the convention works from the inside.

Then the next year she called me and told me she wanted me on her Board of Directors.  Fast forward and here I am…I am the National High School Representative on the BOD’s for the AVCA.  We have two annual board meetings, one in conjunction with the Final Four and one in the spring.

I love this role so much.  It puts me in a room with like minded people who all want the same thing…to advance our sport, and quite frankly, during these weird times, to protect it.

There are coaches from every level, every division collegiately in both the men’s and women’s game on this board.  I am privileged to be one of them.

Kathy’s email was beyond kind but it could not have come at a more perfect time.

Here is just a snippet of what she wrote:

“I know these are challenging times for schools, students, communities and our country.  I wanted you to know that in the middle of all of this distress, Nancy is lifting people up, making volleyball matter, and representing you and St. James in exemplary ways.

Thanks for sharing her spirit and passion with us.”

Kathy DeBoer

This wasn’t even the best part.

I am not sharing these words or this story with you to tell you about myself, but instead to URGE you to write the note.  If you had exemplary service somewhere, ask for the manager and let them know.  If you are now friends with the best Costco employee ever named Steven…let his manager know (check).  If your teacher did an awesome job managing the move to online school…write the email.  If your doctor gives you or a family member great care, write the note.  If your mail carrier is a rock star, write the note.  If your friend helped you out…write the note. And the list goes on and on and on.

We all have crappy days where we need to hear that we are doing a good job and that the work we do matters.  Heck…even on good days it’s nice to hear these things.

On that particular evening, this is SOOOO what I needed and Kathy had no idea.

Thank you to Kathy for making me day.

Thank you to my boss for forwarding it to me, or else I would never have known it was sent.

So here I am urging you to write the note.  The second I press publish on this, I will be writing the notes too!

GOD bless!

#celebr8awesome

#dorseyshenanigans