Season 6 Whats The Dream? Blog 26: Bloom

 Bloom

As many of you know, my childhood best friend was a girl named Samantha McCarthy (S.M.). S.M. passed away on October 15, 2009, and I miss her every day. In her honor, her mom, Nikki, started Sam's Fans to support music and art therapy in Ohio hospitals. Every year, they have a fashion show called Thread of Hope (TOH).

Each year, TOH has a theme. The first TOH after Covid was branded as “The Rainbow After The Storm,” last year's was “Be Bold,” and this year's was “Bloom.” The Exchange at Bridge Park, where TOH is always held, was decorated with flowers as far as the eye could see. In Nikki's own words, “In the past year, we (Sam's Fans) have seen tremendous growth as a team, and it's all thanks to your invaluable support.” She went on to compare Sam's Fans to a garden, hence the theme. This theme is very timely to me as I am planning on planting my own seed… But we'll get to that in a second.

When I walked in, I talked to Nikki's best friend, Mandy, Allie, who is a friend of Mandy and Nikki and a member of the Sam's Fans board, Allie's husband Joe, Nikki's husband Dan, two of their kids, Finn and Jack, a few more members of their extended family, the social media director Averi, and S.M.’s best friend Kyra.

It was an amazing night. After Nikki and Miranda, the owner of Thread, started the night, the MC for the night started the auction. I'm always surprised at how fast auctioneers talk in real life. I know I’ve written that before, but it surprises me every year! Anyway, I forget the exact fundraising goal, but it was like $34,000-ish. They made over $100,000, though!

Directly after that, a video about the impact of Sam’s Fans was played. This video starred a girl named Alea Ramsey. Alia battled (and beat) cancer 8 times throughout her childhood. She got music therapy through Sam’s Fans, and she has a nonprofit called Bearing Hope. She also released a book called When Life Gives You Cancer! In the video, Nikki described the similarities between Alea and S.M., and there was not a dry eye in the room.

After that, the fashion show began, and as it was wrapping up, I searched for Mandy. She was talking to a group of people, and her mom was standing next to her. When her mom saw me clearly waiting, she directed Mandy to me.

“Hey,” I said, “I know this is not a good time, but I’m gonna send you a text tomorrow… I need to take you out to dinner. We have some things to discuss.”

“Ummm,” she started, “is everything Okay?”

“Oh yes!” I said quickly. “Sorry, didn’t mean to worry you. Everything’s fine, but you know me, I'm a planner, and I’m very dramatic!”

She laughed, remembering when I had secretly interviewed her a couple years ago when I was writing Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam. “Well,” Mandy said, smiling, “ I’m looking forward to your text!”

Have a Greattastic day, and be safe

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 6 Whats The Dream? Blog 25: Steven Sanchez

 Steven Sanchez

Steven Sanchez is a relatively new musician. I started hearing about him through my “sisters.” The day after Cyndi and Jeremy's wedding, October 1st, Arden and I had a phone call. She told me that she, Marshall, and Kid were going to see Steven Sanchez when he came to Columbus on October 14th. I asked Paige if she wanted to go, and she said yes; then, I promptly asked Arden to send me some of his albums.

Now, there is this other artist that has been around for a while named Jake Scott. The girls discovered him through their Canadian friends, and literally, up until last week, I didn't know that I knew anyone else who liked him. Like, I knew he was famous, but he wasn't… Taylor Swift. I’m aware that's an unfair comparison, but you get my point. Because I had never heard of Steven, in the same way I hadn't heard of Jake, I figured the former was also kind of a niche artist. I didn't realize that everyone knows at least one of his songs. It’s called Until I Found You.

On October 13th, I finally got around to listening to the albums. I was listening to them as I drove from New Story to Columbus State to pick Paige up. By the time I had picked her up and we were getting on the highway Until I Found You came on. I didn't recognize it until the chorus, and I was confused at first because I thought it was playing in my head. “Wait, this is him!” I screamed when I registered what was happening.

“Yes!” Paige laughed at my ignorance.

The next day, we went to my “sisters’” parents’ house for dinner and cake to celebrate… something that I’m not going to talk about right now, but I will definitely come back to eventually. After we had finished, we got into Marshall's car and drove to Kemba Live. Just for continuity purposes, Kemba Live is where Cousin Simple played Jingle Jam with AJR and Spencer Sutherland.

We got there about an hour and a half after the doors opened, and we missed most of the opener. When the opener had finished, the crowd dispersed a little bit, and we managed to find spots. About 30 minutes later, all the lights went off, and Steven Sanchez got on stage. He was a really good performer. The concept of the show was that he died in the 50s, and he and his band were performing to tell the story of how he died. As a storyteller, I enjoyed it; his music was great too!

Have a Greattastic day, and be safe,

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 6 Whats The Dream? Blog 24: The Wedding Of Cyndi And Jeremy

 The Wedding Of Cyndi And Jeremy

My Aunt Cyndi and her longtime boyfriend, Jeremy, have been engaged for the last two years. They didn't want to think about the wedding right away because, at the time of their engagement, they were in the middle of building a house, but that ended up taking a lot longer than they had expected. When the house was finally finished last winter, they scheduled the wedding for September 30, 2023.

My family, Paige, and I got to the house at 5:45 p.m. Everybody else went and greeted my extended family while I snuck into the house. Uncle Bob, who was officiating, and Jeremy were standing in the kitchen. “You ready,” Uncle Bob asked when he saw me.

“Yep,” I said, “I just want to practice one more time… And maybe go to the bathroom.”

15 minutes later, I was waiting at the side of the house while Cyndi, Jeremy, my cousins Caitlynn and Cameron, and Bob processed onto the patio. Bob welcomed everybody and then introduced me. With the mic in one hand and my phone with my speech pulled up in the other, I walked onto the patio.

I'm not going to repeat my entire speech here because it in and of itself is the standard length of one of these installments, but I'll go over the basics. I started by saying that I have never thought of Cyndi as my aunt… she is more of a friend that I'm related to. I talked about how I didn't understand that adults were “just normal humans” until I saw Cyndi go through some horrible things with her ex-husband, though obviously I didn't word it exactly like that. Then I mentioned how I met Jeremy and that, having seen everything they've been through, I know that they are soulmates. After I finished, I took my seat, the ceremony continued, and eventually, Bob pronounced them husband and wife!

We took pictures, had dinner, I introduced Paige to my Aunt Shana, and then Cyndi and Jeremy cut the cake. From here, the night really got going. My immediate family, Paige, the Mitreys (Aunt Melissa, Uncle Andy, their kids, Alex, Maci, Nicholas, and Alex's girlfriend Emma), along with the rest of my extended family and all the other guests, danced the night away. A few times, Cameron was allowed to perform, which was really fun to watch, even though I think it's proof that we may have let him go to a few too many Cousin Simple shows in his early years!

I have written about a lot of weddings in this series, and this will not be the last one that I write about. But I will say this is definitely one of the most interesting weddings I've been to. I think it might be because I wasn't expecting it. I mean, yes, they've been engaged for two years, and even before that, I knew it would happen… but I wasn't ready for what it was going to be like.

Cyndi is someone that I have known my entire life. We have each seen the other go through the best times and the worst. Getting chosen out of everyone in my family to speak at her wedding was an honor that I can't even begin to describe.

Congratulations, Cyndi and Jeremy! Wishing you a Greattastic Life! 

With love, J. Mitchie Ulibarri