Commercial Credits:
Production Company: Untitled Films, Toronto
Director: John Mastromonaco
Executive Producer: James Davis
Producer: Tom Evelyn
Director of Photography: John Houtman

So we are up to episode 3 now! We would really like to thank the people at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park who provided Tim’s speech footage for this episode. If you haven’t been to the stadium it’s a beautiful place, especially if you’re a baseball fan. You can check them out online here.

For those of you interested in baseball and Lou Gehrig, you can find more information on him here. I know a lot of you reading this may not be interested in baseball at all so I won’t bore you with a lot of information about Gehrig’s many records. I think the single most impressive thing that Gehrig accomplished was his record of playing in 2,130 consecutive games from 1925-1939. That may or may not sound that impressive to you but think of it this way, for 14 years he played every single game, a record that would last for 56 years. He was called the “Iron Horse” because of his amazing durability. With the onset of ALS symptoms, Gehrig’s performance began to diminish and there was increasing pressure for him to be benched. Ultimately, it was Gehrig who took himself out of the lineup for the good of the team.

I think about how hard that must have been for Gehrig to give up something that he obviously loved so much and then I think about Tim and his music. For those who may not know, Tim is a great musician who is probably best known for his time spent with the Greensboro based band, Kudzu Wish. He currently is involved with a couple of music projects. One is a powerpop home recording project called the Popovers and the other is his current band, Decoration Ghost. He’s recently had to switch from playing bass to playing keyboard because of his symptoms. There will come a day when Tim will no longer be able to perform music but it is my hope that he will continue to find ways to create music by whatever means. Jason Becker is another musician who has been battling ALS for years and even though he is now completely paralyzed, he continues to find ways to compose new songs and recently released his newest album in 2008. You can find more info on his story here.

Now that more of Tim’s story is available online, we are looking for ways to spread the word. If you run a blog, work at a newspaper or any other media outlet then please contact us. We’d love to create further awareness about Tim’s story and ALS. If you are just someone checking out the videos weekly, tell your friends about it, share the videos on Facebook or any other social networking site. Anyone wishing to donate some of their time to help us out with our social networking efforts, you can contact us here. Creating awareness is key to funding research and eventually finding a cure for this terrible disease.

A huge thanks goes out to Brian Clarey and our friends at Yes! Weekly for their great article on Tim’s story. You can find it here.

There are a lot of reasons why we chose to tell Tim’s story. He’s a great guy, it’s a one of a kind story to tell, his friend’s dedication to him is a beautiful thing to share with others and I could go on and on but I think the most important thing is to show that people are supposed to help one another. Whether it’s a good friend or even a stranger that need helps, people should look out for one another. We are bombarded by awful news 24 hours a day on a lot of the news networks and rarely do we see stories that are positive. We hope we can make a small dent in that by telling Tim’s story. It’s important to me personally because this is how I want my daughter to see the world. I want her to know that when people face hard times or disease or whatever that they can count on the support of friends and family and a caring community that will address their needs.

The Often Awesome Army is doing amazing things to provide for Tim’s quality of life care. They do benefit shows, art auctions, cook meals for him and will soon be providing for his day to day care. It is so awe inspiring to witness. We hope to grow the Often Awesome Army. If you or someone you know is interested in donating money or time or services that can help provide for Tim’s quality of life care then please contact the Often Awesome Army here. Do you know a business that will provide sponsorship for the series? If so, then have them contact us.

We want to bring Tim’s story to the rest of the world. You can help us do that by telling your friends about the series. Tweet it, post on Facebook, myspace, etc. If you have a blog or know people that run a blog then have them post the videos for us. If you work for a magazine, news channel or any other media outlet then contact us. We’d love to tell you about Tim’s story and the positive impact that it has had on all those that have heard about it.

So why are we doing this series?

Originally I didn’t even know how to approach Tim about doing a web series on his battle with ALS. I had talked to a mutual friend of ours and he seemed to think Tim might be into doing it. As filmmakers, Andy and I are always looking for interesting stories to tell and Tim’s story certainly qualifies as interesting, actually amazing. When we first talked to Tim, he made it very clear that he wanted to leave behind a legacy and saw this as a very good opportunity to do so. So Tim was willing and we had the capability but I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into. First of all, he’s a friend and it’s going to be tough watching the battle he has ahead of him much less be filming said battle. Second, I can’t even watch Extreme Home Makeover without crying and now Andy and I have to shoot and edit some very heavy content. Last, I was really stressed out about doing this story justice. I think Tim’s story is probably one of the most important things we’ll ever do and I just want to be able to get it right. Having completed the first episode, I feel like we did a pretty good job (hopefully our audience will as well).

We’d like to thank Tim and Kaylan for the opportunity to work on this project. It has truly been inspiring to see the strength and the courage that they both have as they face these uncertain times in their lives. To know Tim is to love him. It’s no coincidence that Tim has an army of friends willing to help him through all this. He’s obviously done something right in his life. As amazing as Tim is, I’ll have to say that I’m very much in awe of Kaylan. Her love for Tim, her willingness to face these difficult times with him and her unselfish devotion to him really blows me away. I’m not sure you can say Tim’s lucky but he certainly hit the jackpot when he met Kaylan.

It is our hope that people will watch this series and have a new appreciation for the important things in life. Love, good friends and compassion for one another. It is our honor and privilege to be working on this series and not only is it Tim’s legacy, it is now our legacy as well.

Thanks so much for joining us on this adventure!

Andy Coon
Blake Faucette