4th of July message from Ken Vierling, from his website:
Background on Ken Vierling in prior post
Hello everyone. Just to let you all know Ken is dictating this update for you all to read.
I am doing fine. I am operating an electric wheelchair pretty well and eating regular foods. I want to thank everyone who stopped to visit or who called. Those visits and calls are allways welcome.
The rehab department has set a tentative date of August 3rd, 2009 as the day I leave here. Where I go to from here is to be determined. Feel free to call my voice activated phone in my room. The number is 507-287-4513. I will look forward to hearing from you!
Letter from Les Novak re: Fund Raiser for Ken Vierling
Greetings!!
We hope your spring and summer are going well. For those of you who may not know, for Ken Vierling things are not going so well. Back in April 2009, Ken was involved in a tragic automobile accident in Colorado. The accident resulted in Kenny’s friend being killed and the prognosis is that Kenny’s chances of ever walking again are not great.
Kenny graduated from Owatonna in 1974. He has lived there and in the Twin City area his entire life. Ken has umpired in Minnesota for many years. He basically started umping right out of high school and at the current age of 53 has 35 years of umpiring experience at this time!! Ken has umped Fastpitch softball at all levels from girl’s Junior Olympic to High School to College to the Mens Level, including umping in Men’s Fastpitch World Tournaments. Finally, when not on a Fastpitch field, Ken has umped many Mens & Womens Slowpitch games as well. Ken is currently the ISC II Umpire-in-Chief.
As you can see, umping and being on the softball field is Kenny’s life. He is a true umpire “through and through”. Ken certainly will not umpire this season and although nobody has a “crystal ball”, chances are great that he will never ump again. But Ken is a “battler” and along with some help and support from us, he will fight this battle.
Obviously, Ken and his family will face great financial issues in the future. In the short run, aside from astronomical hospital bills, some of his family have basically (and instantly), up and moved to Colorado to be by Ken’s bedside. They have been in Denver since his accident, and anticipate remaining there, until Ken’s return to Minnesota. And in the long run, down the road, there will be income issues for a long time, as employment potential will certainly be very questionable.
This tragic event has certainly changed their lives in many ways. Therefore, we are planning a Benefit fundraiser to help Kenny and his family at the Farmington American Legion on Saturday, August 29, 2009 in Farmington, Minnesota. At a high level, the tickets come in books of 10 and sell for $10 each.
For now, our first and most immediate priority is to get the ticket sales going. We need friends, relatives and/or whomever to step up and sell and buy tickets. Therefore, we have enclosed 10 tickets in the hopes that you may sell/buy these tickets in an effort to help out Ken and his family. If you can assist, please fill out the ticket stubs and along with the corresponding amount of $$$, please send to either:
Paul Harrington Les Novak Please make all checks payable to:
17281 Jade Court Box 26612 Ken Vierling Benefit
Lakeville, Minn. 55044 or St. Louis Park, Minn. 55426
If you have any questions, please fee free to contact either one of us as follows:
Les Novak……………….Phone: 612-750-1340…………….or email: bestumpln@aol.com
Paul Harrington…………Phone: 612-940-6363…………….or e-mail: paulyharrington@aol.com
For further information on how to help out, please check out Ken’s website at: www.kenvierling.org
Sincerely,
Les Novak Paul Harrington
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“Ump a Game for Kenny”
Greetings!! We hope your umpire season is going well. For Ken Vierling, a fellow umpire, the season is not going so well. Back in April 2009, Ken was involved in a tragic automobile accident in Colorado. The accident resulted in Kenny’s friend being killed and the prognosis that Kenny’s chances of ever walking again are not great.
Kenny has umpired in Minnesota for many years. He basically started umping right out of high school and at the current age of 53 has 35 years of umpiring experience at this time!! Ken has umped Fastpitch softball at all levels from girl’s Junior Olympic to High School to College to the Mens Level, including umping in Men’s Fastpitch World Tournaments. Finally, when not on a Fastpitch field, Ken has umped many Mens & Womens Slowpitch games as well.
As you can see, umping and being on the softball field is Ken’s life. A true umpire “through and through”. Ken certainly will not umpire this season and chances are great that he will never ump again. But Ken is a “battler” and along with some help from us will fight this battle. Ken and his family have great financial issues ahead of them. Aside from astronomical hospital bills, some of his family have basically (and instantly), up and moved to Colorado to be by Ken’s bedside, since the date of his accident, where they remain as of the date of this letter. The tragic event has certainly changed their lives in many ways.
Therefore, we are planning a few different fundraisers at this time to help Kenny and his family. We are hoping that the umpire community will come together and support Kenny and his family. One thing you can do right now is: “Ump a Game(s) for Kenny”
Just follow the instructions below and “Ump a Game (or games) for Kenny”. Summer will come and go quickly and ump a game or two games for Kenny soon!! The success of these fundraisers will depend on you and us as an umpire group!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!
“Ump a Game(s) for Kenny”
Date of game
(** examples)
Umpire’s Name Game Location Tourney or regular season game? Age Level Comments about the game:
(e.g. Weather was cold & rainy……or weather was 78 degrees & cloudy…..or…..Final score was 5 – 1…or Final score was 2 – 1 & winning run scored with two out in the bottom of the 7th….or….10 run rule after 5 innings of play.
May 15, 2009 ** Jim Morrison Farmington Regular Season Mens A clear and beautiful night.
May 17, 2009 ** Butch Holt Lakeville Tourney Game 14 – U Winning run scored on a wild pitch.
May/June/July/August Your Name Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.
We are hoping that umpires help Kenny by umping a game or games and donating the earnings to his fundraiser. In doing so, if we have sufficient number of names, we would like to accumulate a log of games donated and give the log to Kenny at the end of summer. Please help out Kenny!!
THIS IS “ALL ABOUT KENNY”. So if you would like to help out and ump/donate game (or games) to Kenny, please send the above requested information along with earnings from the game(s) to:
Paul Harrington Les Novak
17281 Jade Court Box 26612
Lakeville, Minn. 55044 or St. Louis Park, Minn. 55426
If you have any questions on the above, please contact Les Novak at 612-750-1340 or Paul Harrington at 612-940-6363.