January 19th, 2011 by Conor

From our great friends Justi, Tito, and Ziggy down in Argentina.

January 19th, 2011 by Conor

Positive thoughts and well wishes from Maui!

January 19th, 2011 by Conor

So another stop on the super demo tour down. This week was Mt. Hood. The weather was super rainy the whole time. A lot like our first on-hill sponsor activity at Windell’s. We sat around in the rain and tried to encourage kids to try tricks for free stuff. Danny made this easy to do. His positive attitude with any situation made it a pleasure to sit in the rain and cheer kids on. I’m trying to use all my experiences with Danny to keep the smile on my face. I can’t thank Michelle and Conor enough for keeping us posted. I always seem to find a laugh in what Conor writes. Michelles’ notes always make me smile because she talks about Danny the way he talked about her all summer. Sooo stoked to hear Danny’s progress!!! The little steps mean a lot right now and just hearing about them has brighten everybody on tours’ day. Got his easy livin signed and it will be in the mail this week. I hope the shred stick has the same effect on him as the shredding moose. We’ll be in park city this week and I promise to get my chuck monkey on for Danny. Much love
Zahlinski

January 19th, 2011 by Conor

Howdy Conor or whoever is keeping this incredible site updated,

I wanted to offer support from myself and the Yellowstone Club Ski Patrol. I was inspired by Drew’s hike for Danny and sign, then Dave’s note from a boat in the middle of no where. I was hoping to “one up” them, and get a clear day because right behind of us is the magnificent summit of Lone Peak, but a white out is also cool. I have a great image of Danny from last winter when he walked into the up-bar of Horsefeathers, he looked like a true pro rider; skate shoes that looked way too cool, jeans that were a little baggy, but not too much, just right. A florescent yellow t-shirt that almost came down to his knees accented by a classy hoody, that was of course, unzipped. And to top it all of was the perfect strait brimmed ball cap that had nothing to do with baseball, but rather a sponsor. Danny was as friendly as I remembered him to be, a good kid doing great things.
Being fellow Montanan’s, I want to extent and invitation to anyone who needs a break, or to get away for a bit. Darren Johnson and myself live here in Big Sky, just south of Bozeman, and would be willing to have anyone who need a break or a ride. We can work out a way for one person to ride(using Dar’s pass) at Big Sky, and possibly more if need be.
Fell free to edit this post as little or as much as you like. In the picture that is me in the middle(Beau Etter-Garrette), Darren Johnson on the right, and Kyle Fredrick(a random patroler who got in the picture, but made the image symmetrical). Conor I love reading you midnight posts, they’re informative and very humorous. Keep up the good work. I wish you all wellness and happiness and it seems like there is a lot of hope to be had.

As always,

Beau

Be Well and Smile.

January 19th, 2011 by Conor

Keep em coming… Send your images to 603-496-6621 or donations@dannyisthebomb.com

January 19th, 2011 by Conor

Many years ago, I worked with Danny at Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, NH along with his friends from high school: Ben, Ashley, Rachel, and Kristen. What a great crew that was. Danny always made you smile and laugh.

I happened to be driving past the Ham Arena in Conway, NH today to see “Danny Is The Bomb” posted on their sign. Thought you’d like to see it.

Conor and Michelle,

Thank you for keeping all of us in the loop. You’re doing something truly amazing.

Sending you and Danny well wishes, strength and courage to get through this difficult time. You are all in my thoughts.

Be well,

Kelly

January 19th, 2011 by Conor

I hung out with Danny quite a bit in high school. I don’t think I have seen him in at least 2 years now. When I think about Danny it makes me want to smile because he is such a good person and all the memories I have had with him are truly funny! I can remember one spring day Sarah Martin and I were hanging out with Danny and we were talking about an upcoming lacrosse match that they had and Sarah and I went to a lot of the matches together to support the team. Danny was all excited about it as usual and he was like “hey!!! why don’t you guys make a sign for me and bring it to the game.” Sarah and I were avid sign makers for our fellow Kennett Eagles sports teams and we were all for it. This sign was one of my favorites and probably the only one that I can still remember to this day. With it being Danny and all we knew we could get creative with it. Once the game started and we got there we were on the sidelines with our sign waving it in the air proud. I’ll never forget the look on Danny’s face when he looked over at us to read it. Kind of a blank stare like WTF…….shortly followed by a “danny smile and laugh.” Our sign read “DANNY T, NUMBER 3, WILL YOU PLEASE GO OUT WITH ME!!” We later made it into a song and to this day it still makes me laugh and brings a smile to my face, hopefully it will do the same when Danny reads this. Danny, I cant wait to reunite one day (hopefully soon) and tell stories about the funny/stupid stuff we did in high school. Thinking about you daily and cant wait till the day we can talk/meet up again! Much love!!!!!!!

-Tara-

January 19th, 2011 by Conor

January 18th, 2011 by Conor

Well everyone, it was an interesting night here on the late shift. Danny is awake a decent amount now but he still can’t mouth words. It’s hard because you can only have a one way conversation for so long. And the communications and questions have to be solved with a head nod or a thumbs up. So, obviously communication is pretty limited.

I started showing off some of the things that have been sent to Danny from around the room. He really liked the snowboarding moose that was sent in from Tara Watt. That lasted the longest I think. He clutched it in his hand for a good 20 minutes. I showed him how fun it could be to have the moose trick his way around his bed. He got quite a kick out of that.

Another favorite was the solar powered flower sent in by our cousin Sarah Allyn. You should have seen his face when we said “Hey Danny, wait till you see the solar powered flower.” His reaction was pretty similar to the one I got last night when I asked him if he wanted to keep the furry foot boots. He looked confused/intrigued/no-freakin’way-where-did-that-come-from-what-aren’t-we-selling-these-and-making-millions. Well maybe not the last one. But who the heck knows.

Which leads me into my next thought. It’s hard to tell what he knows, but he does certainly knows that something is very very wrong. When he looks around the room he looks like he is looking a lot further than the walls. I think he is searching to find the answer as to what the hell ended him up in this horrible condition. He can definitely understand a lot of our questions and even some more of our complex logic. For Example I told him that __________ won the Dew Tour last weekend (Huge snowboard contest), and he immediately gave this look like No way, that is totally impossible. Which, if you knew the name, and the situation, you would reaction pretty spot on. But it was exciting that he was quick to understand that was nearly impossible, but yet it’s not like I said Cookie Monster or something so unbelievable. He was able to quickly know that no way in hell that person was winning the Dew Tour.

Things are looking up for all of us. Down for him. That’s about all I can say. We are all happy to be slowly getting him back, but he has so far to go it’s sort of scary. He is going to get there but it sure is going to take a bit.

Another night down. Time to get some sleep.

Love ya Danny!

~Conor

PS all you that donated last night my computer is having major problems so I didn’t get to add you to the donations list. I will take care of that tomorrow. Thanks for all of your support. Love you all!

January 18th, 2011 by MIchelle

It’s 5:42 AM. The mornings are starting to come quicker now that Danny is more astir. The night shift flies by. Keeping him company is more interactive. Yesterday was a big day for Danny. He had PT and a lot of other things going on to get the ball rolling in the right direction. Ellen said it seemed to be overwhelming, as I’m sure it must have been. It’s hard to imagine being in his shoes. When he wakes up he looks around the room with glazed over eyes with a blank stare I can’t help, but wonder what he’s thinking. I know that he is registering some of the things we say to him. If you talk to him and look him in the eyes you can see emotion. Sometimes it’s in the form of tears and others a faint smile. One of our favorite reactions from Danny is the look he gives when, for example, Conor told him that I’ve been eating three donuts at the continental breakfast after our walk home (not true). It’s priceless.

Smile count today for Danny was three. Two were from the same story, but I’ll take it.

-Michelle