After I wrote this post and published it, I knew it was time. I put on my headphones, grabbed some tissue and hit that play button again. I laughed, and I cried. I kept wishing so much that I had been able to afford the plane ticket to be there. I have so many stories of Cory that I could have shared… showing a side of him that his family never even realized existed until after he was gone.

My vow is to try to put those stories and memories into words, to pass along to those of you who never knew “Gimpi” online. He was much the same as he was in his “real” life, of course. But he was so much more than that. Cory was son, friend, brother, counselor, trickster, prankster, instigator, advisor… wait. You’re shaking your head at me. And, you’re right… Cory was all of that in person, as much as he was to all of us online.

Unfortunately, the video file is too large to embed here. I’m working on a way to make it smaller, or get it on to YouTube (or a similar site) so that I can embed it here forever. If anyone has ideas as to how to accomplish this, I would appreciate the advice. For now, I will simply link you to where you can go to watch.

Remembering Cory

However, I need your help! I cannot do this alone.

What are your thoughts and ideas? How would you like to see us do this? Sure, we can get a link to their bank account/paypal/whatever – and simply blog/tweet/fb/ our intentions. We could organize a local event, and still allow people to donate from around the world. We can do whatever we want… but what DO we want?

I am a detail person. I am an organizer. I get things done. But this isn’t something for me to do alone. I want this to be a group project. I want your ideas and thoughts, the love you had for Cory, poured into whatever we come up with.

Leave a comment here, or email me at kat at lockergnome dot com and let me know what YOU think we should do. Let’s all work together to come up with one hell of a great event to honor our friend.