Happy Holidays and Salutations, friends.

This is a story and a request. As all such things go, we’ll start with the story. As many

of you are aware, our dear friend Allan has been, in his own words, challenged this

year. It began over Easter when, due to sharp and debilitating pain in his chest and

abdomen, he bounced in and out of the ER and hospital. This concluded with him being

placed on life support and a medically induced coma. That’s correct, not an often

misused or ignored punctuation mark, but a coma due to his post gallbladder removal

surgical site going septic.

Things haven’t improved much from there. After taking some much-needed time to

recover, Allan returned to work and was unexpectedly laid off from his job with several

of his peers in July. It’s safe to say 2025 has been an exceptionally difficult year for him.

What fewer of you probably know is that Allan was rushed to the ER again just last

week. He was highly anemic and, after nearly passing out during a La Voûte colorguard

rehearsal, had to undergo several blood transfusions in order to stabilize. He’s still

undergoing tests to try and identify the root cause of all the blood he lost, but he has

stabilized. All this while he’s been uninsured since his lay off in July.

Allan has been an amazing friend to anyone who is likely to read this. In ways both

large and small he’s given as much as he could and often more than he should, in ways

both big and small, to enrich the lives of his friends and loved ones. I think we all have

ourselves an ‘Allan story’ of him doing wonderful and often ridiculous things for the

people in his life.

Now the request. As it’s the Holiday season, the hope is that those of us closest to him

will contribute whatever we’re able to help offset some of his medical costs. The intent

is not to embarrass Allan or broadcast his hard luck on social media. This request is

being shared thoughtfully and within a supportive circle of friends. We don’t want to

negatively impact potential or future job prospects by spotlighting his medical issues.

But if you are able to contribute, please know that this is simply about giving a little bit of

Christmas hope and cheer going into 2026 to, collectively, one of the best friends any of

us could ask for. Cheers and Merry Christmas!