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Aspen Sunset

I received the letter below – Dan has been a friend since kindergarten. Dan is one of the reasons that I am so grateful that I am able to assist families in obtaining Life Insurance.

Thank you for your support, ALS is a horrible disease, if you can help please do.

Dear Friends and Family,

As many of you know for the past several months I have been training to run my first half marathon. As much as I love to challenge myself, this great challenge is not for me. I am running for someone who has changed the lives of everyone who knows him, my dear friend and mentor Dan.

I first met Dan when I was a young professional fresh out of graduate school. Dan took me under his wing and taught me about being a successful accountant. More important, he taught me how to be a better person. Dan in his quiet way is a leader, setting an example of superior work, integrity and diligence. He has never failed to bring laughter or a smile to the faces of those he works with. His words of encouragement were often what got me through those long public accounting days.

Outside of work, Dan sets an example of how to be a wonderful friend, father and husband. Dan truly balanced devotion to his work with spending time with his family. I always marveled at his ability to succeed at the office while still putting first what mattered most, his family.

As most of you know on June 4, 2010, Dan was diagnosed with ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. My first reaction was shock, because he is so young. My second reaction was anger, how could this happen to Dan? And then pure sadness, Dan and his family don’t deserve this. Lastly, I was humbled when Dan set yet another example for us all: strength. For more than a year after being diagnosed Dan came to work each day and showed everyone around him that he would not let his disease define him and he continued to set the bar high for his coworkers.

As I trained for this run, there were many times that I felt fatigue, pain and frustration, but all of that would go away when I thought about the reason I was running. I am running for Dan, who through his quiet example never complained or shirked from his commitments. I am running as a way of showing Dan and his family how much they mean to me. I am running to share Dan’s story and to help spread awareness about ALS, a disease with no cure and very little in the way of treatment.

I set out training months ago with two goals in mind:

1. To honor Dan by accomplishing something I had never done before and

2. That I might inspire others to help make a difference.

I am hoping you will support me in this great endeavor by making a donation to Dan and his family to help offset some of their financial burden and/or by sharing their story and spreading awareness.

To hear more about Dan’s story and/or to make a donation, please see Dan’s website at: http://thepollockfamilyfund.bbnow.org/

To learn more about ALS (May is ALS awareness Month), please visit http://www.alsa.org.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that you feel it in your heart to support me!

Kat

P.S. I will be running the Colfax Half-Marathon on May 20th along with several members of the Archstone team, who are participating in various races. If you have time please come out and cheer us on as we sprint, walk, stumble and crawl across finish lines.

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