Green Bay Packers Postscript

Last week, I blogged about my trip to see the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.  It was something I decided I wanted to do early on in my diagnosis if I got better.


I now have a follow-up to this story.


We left for Wisconsin on a Thursday, and Sarah and I drove out from Colorado.  During the short week before we left, Sarah had sent a letter to the Green Bay Packers front office telling them about this trip, and how out of London, Paris, Hawaii, or a cruise, I wanted to go to Green Bay, Wisconsin.  This letter was completely unbeknownst to me.  I first learned of this when we were actually on the road.  To this day, I still have not seen a copy of it, but the gist was that the trip meant a lot, I was really excited, and my favorite players were Donald Driver, Aaron Rodgers, and Clay Matthews, and maybe could we get a "hello" message on the jumbotron scoreboard.   She left her cell phone number with the Packers.


Sarah told me about this letter somewhere in Nebraska.  I was mildly surprised, although I told her to expect nothing.  Especially three days out from the game.


The trip came and went and was a great time!  I didn't give another thought to her letter.


A week later, the Green Bay Packers community outreach called Sarah on the phone!  There was nothing they could have done, and they don't do scoreboard messages, but they were very touched by her letter, pleased with what I wanted to do with my trip, and they were all thinking about us.  Oh, and to keep an eye on the mail as they sent a package.


Sarah told me about this and I was very interested.  What could the Packers be sending?

I could spot the packing tape on the box as it sat on my porch from my car as I came home on Tuesday.  The team logo on the packing tape is such a nice touch.   Now I was very intrigued.  The box was big, but it was light, too.  Sarah was still in Texas at a conference.  Should I wait for her before opening it?


I consider myself to be very patient, but I'm not that patient.  Besides, my name was on the packing label.  So, I opened it.   The first thing I saw was a card made out to me (pictured three pictures down).  It had the Packers logo on the outside, and said that they were thinking about me, signed, Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.


The next thing I noticed was a Packers hat.  At this point I'm shocked.  How much stuff did they put in here?  A lot.  I also found a travel mug, and an autographed football.  The football is really neat, and luckily, many of the players signed their numbers as well, so you can identify the signatures.

The next thing I noticed was a bag from the Packers charities.  Inside it were a collection of huge football cards (for lack of better term).  You can see them below, I laid out a few favorites, including the players Sarah mentioned in her letter as my favorites.  There's also a schedule with Donald Driver on it, a Packers Pen, and a Packers key-chain.

Below that was a mini Packers pennant, and a team photo from last year.   

At the very bottom of the box is the glossy Aaron Rodgers photo pictured above.  What a great collection of stuff!  The cool thing is, I'm pretty sure all of it is special and unique to their community outreach program.   For example, if you go to the Packer Pro Shop, and you look at their autographed footballs for sale, their stock photo shows a football from 2008, the same year my football is from, but they are not the same item.  Likewise with the hat, the mug, and the pen:  they are similar to items you can purchase, but not identical, which I think is really neat.


Moreover, I think it speaks to the generosity of the organization.  In my opinion, it was unbelievably classy that they sent us all this stuff.  I'm surprised they have it on hand to send, but they clearly take community outreach seriously, and probably are involved in a big enough variety of things to necessitate having so much on hand.  (Those curious can see some of the things the Packers are involved in here, and maybe background on the football here).  I don't know what Sarah said that was so convincing, but wow!  Obviously it meant a lot to me, and was a pretty special cap on a very special trip.  I'll have to send them a nice thank you card, and I'll probably include a picture of Sarah and I from the game, probably this one, with Sarah in her Aaron Rodgers shirt, and me in my Donald Driver shirt, our favorite players.  Hopefully the Packers can get past some injuries and pick up a few wins in the coming weeks!