Yesterday was a wonderfully exciting and rewarding day. 

The tale starts back in April. I work at Women for Healthy Rural Living one day a week. I’ve been involved with WHRL since 2005 in one form or another – volunteer, board president, and now staff. All the while, I’ve worked alongside my friend, Chris Kuhni, WHRL’s executive director. 

WHRL is Chris’ baby. She conceived the idea, recruited volunteers, raised money, and provided outstanding leadership to this tiny non-profit (and continues to). She did this while working as a woman’s health nurse practitioner. Her time as executive director has been entirely volunteered, approximately 16,000 hours of volunteer time since 2005. 

I stumbled across a notice about the New England Patriot’s Foundation Myra Kraft Community MVP Award for Volunteerism on the team’s app. After some thought, I drafted a nomination application for Chris and recruited a few folks to help refine it. I submitted it and then forgot about it. I mean, what were the odds that Chris would be selected? Just when I’d written the whole thing off, I received a call from a fellow on behalf of the Patriots. He had “a few questions about the application.” It was exciting to know that Chris was under consideration. Nervous, I shut myself in my office and returned his call. It turns out there were no questions. He wanted to let me know that the Patriots Foundation had selected Chris as one of their MVP Award winners. I felt as if I’d won the lottery! I was the one who got to call Chris to share the news. To say she was shocked is an understatement; she didn’t know I’d sent in the app – one of the rare secrets I’ve been able to keep. I don’t think either of us slept much that night. 

Fast forward to this week. The Patriots Foundation invited all recipients and those who nominated them to a luncheon and awards presentation at Gillette Stadium. We played hooky from work on Tuesday and road-tripped our way down the coast to New Hampshire with a stopover for shopping in Camden. Thursday, we finished the trip to Foxboro and Gillette Stadium. 

A PATs fan since moving to New England 24 years ago, this was my first visit to the stadium – or any NFL stadium for that matter. It was such fun, walking through tunnels past the visitor locker rooms, taking everything in. We dined with other recipients in the Optimum Lounge situated just beyond the end zone. 

It turns out that there were 250 applications with 26 recipients selected from all six New England States. The youngest recipient was 21 – the oldest 92!

Mr. Kraft awarded Chris a personalized football and a check for $10,000 made out to WHRL in her honor. In all, the foundation awarded $275,000 to non-profit organizations on this day. All of the awardees represented small, grassroots organizations doing great things. 

After the ceremony, we were allowed to wander out on the field and take pictures. It was so impressive but oddly felt smaller from down on the field than it looks on a television aerial view. Although, I’m sure I wouldn’t think that if I was the one running up and down the field for 60 minutes. What I really wanted to do was lay down on the turf and stare up at the whole. I restrained myself.

We checked out and posed with the six shiny Super Bowl trophies – including the famous dented trophy, thanks to #82. They actually have a trophy wrangler who guards and manages the trophies (with gloves). When asked, he politely informed us that there was no touching the trophies. 

Then there was nothing left to do but head home – and with a six-hour drive ahead of us, it felt a bit daunting – yet we oddly didn’t want to leave. We were having so much fun. 

It was a wonderful day celebrating the work of this remarkable woman. I’m lucky to work with her and have her as a friend. 

Read more about this year’s recipients here: https://www.patriots.com/news/robert-kraft-and-the-new-england-patriots-foundation-donate-275-000-in-the-name-