Happy Friday friend! Man! What! A! Week! OOFTA! :) Almost a blur... but thankfully I used to play a lot of video games and still design a lot... so my visual recall is still pretty clear. haha! One of my biggest commitments was finally completed this week... :D... The Marc of a Hero American Flag Fountain is finished.. and finished on a special day too.. <3 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hv577CBW-0 It was an emotional completion too.. as I sent pictures of the first run to Marc's mother, Debbie, she replied back saying it was his 41st birthday that very day. For me... hearing that along made for a spiritual closure on this fountain. As I recall over the course of the build so many things just happened to be about Marc.. not the top of mind stuff, but tangible things like finishing it on his birthday or hearing his pseudo eulogy from Jocko Willink's new book while I was going to pick up Marc's mirror and other things... Just hits the feels. <3 One thing that makes this so meaningful to me is that Marc's last gift to Debbie was a water feature. To this day it sits in her living room. When I met Debbie it had stopped working years ago. I had the honor and privilege to fix it and make her run again... so now to build a water feature on behalf of Marc's sacrifice... speechless...
In all of the 77 fountains I've built, I've never built a fountain from design to fabrication to completion in a smidge over 3 weeks. The process took over 50 hours from design through the build. Man! ... I'm exhausted! but fueled with excitement. Kind of like having watched Avin and his teammates win the football championships... but instead of elated with pure excitement, I must feel like a mom having given birth... whooped as shit, but so happy to be holding the baby..
HAHA!! I have no clue what it's like to have a baby... but I tell you, building these from start to finish and then seeing them stand up on end and work and run... it's an amazing feeling and very hard to describe.
I need to give a huge, huge shout out to the people who made this possible! First, my family...they gave me all the time and mental space to pull this off... Lots of long days mixed with tons of extra random hours sprinkled in day after day, night after night... with my full plate of other commitments it was like a sprinted marathon... so happy I did so though :) Next, my vendors... they so graciously donated the material, their time, and wisdom on how we could do this.. Miss Jeanne and Frank at Azteca Glass whom gave us a mirror and a sample mirror to experiment on.. Paul at Artistic Sandblasting & Engraving took my idea and made it possible. The look couldn't have been pulled off done without his help.
Mark & Thomas at JMT Electrical Manufacturing... they folded and braked the metal pan and stainless steel skirt and top hood... even rushed a fixed part due to a design miss hap.. Chad at Metal Supermarkets, he gave me the other metal components needed to pull this off.
Joel & Wendy at Arizona Truck Pros... always do a bang up job making my pans water tight!
And ma'dude! Dustin Standridge at Dunn Edwards gave me some incredible epoxy based paint to give the fountain some needed pop and love. It was a process, but he was an awesome help! :)
Everyone's time and effort made one of the most exciting fountains I've ever created.
Man! I could just keep looking at this! it's one of those I'd just assume keep for myself... hahah but! wouldn't have loved it like I did knowing we were auctioning it off for a bigger cause than ourselves. :) The retail on The Hero Fountain would be about $5,200. I'm hoping we can earn at least that much in the live auction this Saturday. Chas and I are also auctioning off a $4,000 real estate certificate coupon too :) I get butterfly's just thinking about it all :) <3 I will be sure to update you next Friday on the turnout on what we were able to provide to such an amazing non profit. I love knowing that 90% of every dollar that goes through America's Mighty Warriors goes back to our service people and their families. For me that makes the effort and contribution so much better.
If you haven't bought your tickets yet, please do!! :) https://americasmightywarriors.org/product/2019-marcs-birthday-bash/ Saturday March 23rd, 2019 at the Scottsdale Gun Club from 5pm - 9pm :) Thank you so much for letting me share something so special and so meaningful. Have a grateful Friday! :)
