“Let’s motivate monkeys!”

Yes, this was one of my dad’s favorite phrases. By “monkeys”, he meant myself, my two sisters and my brother. By “motivate” he meant, “let’s go” or “hop to it” or “we’re burning daylight”. He had a lot of catch phrases like that made him Tom, Tommy, Dad or Pop-Pop – most definitely in a class by himself.

My dad passed away 16 years ago very suddenly from a heart attack. He was only 56 years old. Up until then, he had no diagnosis or history of heart disease. Unfortunately, too many of us have a loved one affected by heart disease or stroke. As the leading cause of death in this country, cardiovascular disease claims almost as many lives each year as the next 7 leading causes of death combined. To help stop this, for the 17th year in a row I am creating a team of walkers to help me raise funds for the American Heart Association and I'm asking you to join me. We are called the “Motivated Monkeys”. Our team alone has raised thousands of dollars over the past 16 Heart Walks and I know we can raise tons more this year!