John F. Crowley

Wearing the cloth of our nation was the greatest honor of my life.

Thank you to all who have served in the United States and allied armed forces. Thank you for your selfless dedication to duty, honor, courage and commitment. Thank you especially to my sisters and brothers in arms who have borne the wounds of war, physically or mentally.

“Veterans know better than anyone else the price of freedom, for they've suffered the scars of war. We can offer them no better tribute than to protect what they have won for us.“ -President Ronald Reagan

#veteransday2021 #alwaysgrateful #thankaveteran #veterans

MAKE-A-WISH and MEGAN PAYING IT FORWARD…

This past weekend was sort of like take your dad to work day….

When our daughter Megan was five years old, she was granted a wish to go to Disney World. Years later, after surviving her life-threatening illness, she was able to attend and graduate from the University of Notre Dame and go on to earn a masters in social work. She now works for the Make a Wish Foundation of New Jersey as the Assistant Director of Mission Integration.

When 15 year old Ben Mesecar’s family contacted the Make-A-Wish chapter in North Carolina about having Ben receive a wish, MAW immediately reached out to Megan to help plan with her MAW colleagues. Ben, who lives with a severe and life-threatening form of epilepsy, had a wish for a Notre Dame football weekend experience.

These past few days, I got to witness Megan at work… Making sure Ben had the experience of a lifetime. Everyone at MAW (especially Lauren Geerdes and Brian Powell) and Notre Dame made sure that for just a few days Ben got to live his dream of being a part of the Notre Dame football team. Coach Freeman, the staff the players, personnel… Just absolutely everybody on campus went above and beyond for Ben (including delivering a 49–7 win over Stanford!).

The smile on Ben’s face throughout the weekend said it all. His brother Joel, and parents Chris and Lisa, are amazing human beings.

And for Aileen and I as Megan‘s parents we were just in awe witnessing the care, hard work and attention to every detail that Megan put into this effort to make Ben’s weekend special.

I thought too, remembering all the Make-A-Wish staff and volunteers who made Megan‘s wish so special at Disney back in 2001… and how immensely proud they would be today….

Make-A-Wish America
Make-A-Wish New Jersey
University of Notre Dame
Megan K Crowley
Lauren Geerdes


#hope #strength #joy
#payitforward

WALL STREET JOURNAL STORY THIS MORNING....

WSJ this morning broke the story of my accepting the new role as President & CEO of BIO. You can read it here- and a bit more about my motivation and vision in accepting this position.