The great thing about New York is the volume of people with their eyes wide open. So much goes down in this city. The food, architecture, art and culture. So when we brought our Big Love Balls to The Big Apple, we were embraced by open minds and open hearts. We were invited into cafes, serenaded in Central Park and squeezed a lot. Evenly awed one might say.
My friend Dave Decarlo, a Vancouver artist who makes masterpieces from recycled stuff, allowed me to feature him with Big Love Ball, in celebration of PRIDE. Dave is approaching 70 and while many men tremble at the mere idea of PINK, Dave has spent his life standing tall and PROUD, in every colour.
Each morning he receives bags of groceries which are masterfully folded into his legendary soup. David also serves hearty helpings of acknowledgement, respect, and kindness with each cup to familiar faces and newcomers, because David knows firsthand the most important ingredient of any good soup, is LOVE.
A young man named Michael Page was sucker punched leaving him comatose on the floor of a Starbucks in Vancouver. Onlookers stood helplessly watching. Two days later and with zero choice, his parents Steffany and Mike made the call to let him go.
343 members of the FDNY from 75 separate fire companies made the ultimate sacrifice on 9/11. More than 100 have died since then from illnesses directly related to their work at Ground Zero. The number grows every year.
Like anywhere else we have been, we were met with astonishment, excitement, delight, confusion and playfulness. People from blocks away laughed, amused onlookers whizzed by on public transit and BIGLOVEBALL was squeezed tight by those we’d never met.
On 9/11 we rolled our giant love notes and handed out 50 black markers to share our message of condolence to the first responders and residents of New York City. We invited people from every part of the world to express positive messages of love. What transpired would forever stay with us.
