Traverse City is beautiful in the early fall. The temperatures are essentially the same as Metro Detroit’s climate in mid-September, but the angle at which the sun rises and sets is different with the two-and-a-half degrees of northern latitude behind you.
There’s so much about the Traverse City trip that I’ve made every year over the last 15 years that has nothing to do with hockey, but soothes and restores my soul.
Bringing Aunt Annie along last year made the trip even better, oddly enough, because I wasn’t alone in a hotel for two weeks, and I had a copilot with which to enjoy the non-hockey parts of the trip.
As I stated this morning, it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that I’ll be able to raise enough funds to pay for the handicapped-accessible room that Aunt Annie’s new hips require at the hotel, or the rental car which we require due to our current automobile’s status as inoperable.
Long story long, unless a miracle happens over the next 3 or 4 days, I won’t be able to head up to Traverse City to represent you at the Prospect Showcase and training camp, and that’s gonna break my heart.
I’ll soldier on, because that’s what I try to do when bad things happen, and this has been a year of unexpected surprises (see: those two titanium hips Aunt Annie now sports), but it’s not going to be the same, for me or you.
So that’s why I’m still asking for a miracle in the form of continued donations toward an unlikely but still-possible Traverse City trip for The Malik Report’s constituent parts.
There’s nothing like being at the rink and taking notes on players as you watch them, observing drills and witnessing hockey on the dual sheets of ice at Centre ICE Arena as the “diggers” wait for their quotes, and there’s nothing like feeling that your in-person presence makes a difference.
If you’re still willing to help, we’ll gratefully take what you can give.
If you’re willing to lend a hand, have an official GoFundMe fundraiser page at https://gofund.me/c08de120; we have a PayPal option at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport; there’s Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2; if you’re into the, “I don’t want to use any of those pages” option, here’s always the Giftly option by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com…
And in the banking options, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check, or “Zelle” me via my email, rtxg@yahoo.com. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”
As always, thank you for your readership and your time.
