Dawgs Try Construction For Cody

About a month ago, one of our board members, Bernie Levesque, was contacted about a young man, Cody Beekman, who had been seriously injured in a car wreck. Cody is 21, and had been playing men's league up at The Promenade in Westminster on a team called the Scouts.

Cody had gone to a Halloween party up in Greeley, and had a couple of drinks. Being a responsible person, he decided not to drive home, and instead contacted a friend for a ride. But on that ride home, the irony of all ironies occurred, when the car he was in was t-boned by a drunk driver. The crash left Cody paralyzed from the chest down.

When Cody's case was brought up in the Dawg Nation Hockey Foundation monthly board meeting, of course it was unanimously decided that we would give Cody and his family a cash donation to help with what must be massive medical bills. It was an easy call- we'd done it seven times already in the past year.

But when we looked further, discovered what a great kid Cody is, and what a special family he has, we decided we needed to take it up a notch. With the help of the Colorado Avalanche, we set up a night on April 5th, where we would present Cody and his family a check before the game, and sell tickets with a portion going into his fund (see home page for details).

But we weren't quite done yet. Cody is currently in rehab at Craig Hospital, and is going to be coming home in a few weeks. And when he arrives, he'll need to live in a home modified to meet his special needs.

So for one Saturday in January, Dawg Nation decided to take on a construction project. Cody needed a couple of wheelchair ramps, some new doors, and a hardwood floor in his room, and if was done by a regular contractor, it could have cost the Beekmans a ton of cash. But we had some people in our Dawgs network that knew just enough about construction to be dangerous, so off we went.

Tom Schriefer from Shea Homes, who had brought his kid up to play hockey on our Dawg pond owned by Graham Richardson, hooked us up with Dan Lowe from Alpine Lumber. When Dan heard about our project, he arranged to have all the lumber donated. Then, we found a donor for the floor and some very expensive French doors, when Mark Pijanowski from All Phase Restoration stepped up for us. The doors were essential, because Cody's wheelchair wouldn't be able to fit through the original ones on the house. We'll never be able to thank those guys enough for their contribution.

So we pretty much had the materials- it was just a matter of showing up, and getting to work. At 9:00 on Saturday, construction began, headed up by Matt Durbahn and Rob "Superfan" Packard. Rob's son, Danny, has had his own struggles, fighting and beating cancer, so the project was close to his heart.

For the next 10 hours, the air around the Beekman's home was filled with the sound of buzzsaws, power tools, and the swearing of a group of people trying to piece together a perplexing hardwood floor. But when all was said and done, the project was a total success. And nobody got hurt, except maybe an inept goalie who found a way to cut his hand while operating a power screwdriver.


Keep the sharp things away from this guy...

So at the end of a long day, there were some pretty sore Dawgs, because most of us aren't used to working for a living. But there is no way to describe the pride we all felt, knowing we did something good for some terrific people that needed our help. You just can't put a price on that.

When Cody comes home, he'll find a couple of new ramps to help him in and out of his house, and a room easier to move around in, painted with Avalanche colors (thanks go out to Anchor Paint for that). The Beekmans are now part of our Dawg Nation family, and Cody will always be in our thoughts and prayers as he makes his journey toward recovery.

Here are some highlights of our great day:


Our Dawg Nation girls- from left to right: Becca Durbahn, Cindy Richardson, Debbie Beekman, and Annie Sterner


One of our "foremen" Rob Packard- you can tell by the shirt how hard he worked


One of the ramps- we even poured some concrete. And look at how nice that French door is.


Some of the boys in Cody's new room: Matt Durbahn, Al Sterner, Mike Pijanowski, Phil Beekman, Graham and Marty Richardson


Here's the completed room with new paint and floor. Not bad for a bunch of amateurs.