Sad News - One of our own has passed away.

[DSM_421]

Wow, this is bad news. :(

I haven't visited here in a few months to find this out,,, My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

[311evo]

I forgot my mom's name is on my paypal account, lol.

Great letter Scheides. Thank you for all the work you put into this.

[scheides]

The funeral was very emotional. Mike's family was very supportive of all of his hobbies and they had a rough idea he had some friends in the car community but I don't think they had any idea quite how many. After I asked if there was anything we could do to just name it, Mike's brother Mark looked me dead in the eye and said, 'I'm doing EVERYTHING I can to keep the car' and handing him a big pile of cash was a fantastic start I think. I wish I could have been there when he opened that envelope! :D As I presented it to him his father and other family were around, as well as at least 10 members of the local forums. I told them that this was a gift from ALL of Mike's friends on four forums and it was the sum of *70* donating individuals/shops. I told him that for every donation there was probably 3-10 more well wishes behind it from supporting friends and family members.

It was very emotional but both feelings of happyness and sadness came and went in several waves. There was some cool pics of Mike growing up, our flowers were there and beautiful, and again the entire family was just reeling at the scope of the support we brought. I printed off a few of the letters and gave them to other family members and planned to share them with others there, but they were gone before I could even hang onto one in case I needed it for reference!

I called FastSigns in Brooklyn Center (I've been using them for decals for years) this morning at 8:45 and again at 9:03am and thanked Lee profusely for helping us get the decals ready for this weekend. He said it was no problem and I carefully asked if he had any that were done that I could snag for this morning. He said he had about 10 done. While I got dressed my wife Anna bombed up there, paid for the decals and in that span of time he knocked out another 17, so I had 27 decals to bring with! I bought one myself and sold 5 while I was there and gave about 8 to his family. I hope I don't run out this weekend! We'll get more printed if need be.

http://i.imgur.com/es38A.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/P0fVy.jpg


I talked to Mark and they said they needed to just keep Mike's car parked for the weekend. They are doing some traveling and he said even though he trusts us endlessly, he is worried about legality if anything were to happen. So, it won't be at BIR, but they said they were thinking they could bring it to one of our upcoming events....I recommended the All Mitsubishi Cookout that Curt puts on every year here in MN...Shawn supported this with a beautiful (and true!) story about how Mike had in fact WON a first place trophy at this event last year with his car. Talking it over with others I think it is the perfect venue for a tribute to Mike.

Thanks again for all of your donations and support, I will be mailing out decals starting Monday, I am SLAMMED at work and am now way behind getting ready for this weekend at BIR. I have a decal on my car and like many others, I will be doing plenty of WOT this weekend with Michael Lomker cheering me on!

[Sparky2211]

Thanks for the update! You have truly made this something special and we all know that Mike would greatly appreciate what you and everyone else has done with this tragic loss.

[goodhart]

Couldn't have said it any better scheides. It was very emotional indeed.

[Speedfreak]

Good stuff Scheides. In these tough times for the family, every speck of support helps loved ones get through it.

[CornFed2.4]

Good work Scheides! Its cool to see a community pull together to help someone they knew well or didn't know at all.

[mike55112]

I talked to ron at rs and he has mikes oem hood that was bent. He is going to bring that up to bir and we can all sign it and then either present it to his family or find somewhere to mount it.

[Pushit2.0]

Yes, this is all we can do as a car community and much more. I am all for the idea of having the original hood up at BIR for all to sign and give to the family if possible. But I can see the other side of it that if it was damaged who in there right mind would want to hang onto that.

Anyways I plan to be up at BIR I have some cash in hand and what ever is left after getting in and racing is going to the fund to help the family and loved ones in these hard times.

~John

[Halon]

I'll pick up a sticker up at BIR if you're going to have em up there.