Had a farewell party for a popular manager on Saturday night and the outpouring of love, generosity and sadness was beyond unprecedented in my 15+ years at RPL.
In-scope staff donated so much money to a farewell gift that he ended up getting multiple things – a custom photo book, a custom Pats jersey, and a skateboarding hoodie made in Regina.
At that point, the organizers literally gave up on gifts and just put the extra hundreds of dollars collected into a card – also a custom gift made by one of the many talented artists on our staff.
That’s not to mention those who gave cards and gifts directly (that’s what I did) and the hoodie he’s wearing in this photo was customized by a colleague of his in RPL’s Digital Media Studio. Oh, and out-of-scope staff had a separate fund and bought him a Ticketmaster gift card so he can attend a hockey game or concert in his new city.
I’ll likely write more about Mark and what made him so universally beloved in the context of a Wisdom Wednesday post eventually. But for now, I’ll just leave this photo…