In autumn of 2000, a fan project was organized here at SkatingHaven, to present Todd with messages wishing him happy holidays and good luck at Nationals. Nicole Moore volunteered to deliver it to him, at a reception following Improv-Ice. Her report is as follows: * * * * * * When I got up to the club the room was already filling up with people. I found a spot in the corner where a small group had an extra seat, and when I asked if I could have it, the father said that was fine, and was very nice about letting me put my tons of stuff there! His daughter had actually been one of the two skaters who performed an exhibition during the show. (I don't know if that was on TV). When I talked to the girl, she said that she won the chance to do that in a raffle! I had two missions to accomplish at this point in the evening. I had the Tara fan appreciation book to give to her, and the Skating Haven message book for Todd to give to him. I was going to try and get a picture of each of them with their book, too. And I had a photo Jordi sent along, to see if Todd would sign it for Skating Haven. So the skaters began filtering in, but no sign of Todd or Tara yet. The funny thing is that I was sitting right across from Todd's parents. I decided to show them the message book, and asked his mom if she thought it would be ok to give it to him there. (I was a little concerned about giving something to Todd that he would have to carry, but to Jordi's credit, the book is not only beautiful, but nice and compact for easy travel!) Todd's mom said it was fine to give him the book there and that wouldn't burden him at all. She said he was only going to Canada anyway. I'm not sure; I think she meant that was the last place he had to go before finally going home, so he wouldn't have to carry things for too much longer. When I showed Ruth the book, she actually was very interested in it! She said, "Oh, this is so nice" (or something to that effect). She flipped through the pages and read several of the messages, and said that it was beautiful! Todd's dad was in a conversation with someone else at the table, and wasn't paying attention to us, so she nudged him to show him the book. He smiled and agreed that it was nice. I talked with Ruth for a few minutes before deciding not to take up all her time, lol. She is SOOO nice; I really would've forgotten that she's Todd's mom if we weren't talking about him! She is an extremely cool person. Before I forget, I'll mention that Ruth was quite tickled by Todd's "Who Let the Dogs Out?" program. Todd eventually made his way to the autograph table where the skaters were sitting. I headed in that direction with both books in hand. I could see that Tara had also entered the room, but wasn't even able to make it to the table, to my knowledge. She was surrounded by a mob of people. It was humorous, because although it was almost impossible to actually see Tara, it was easy to tell where she was by the movement of the mob throughout the room! I didn't feel up to trying to work my way through that crowd around Tara, so I went up to the table and waited in the slightly more orderly mob that surrounded Todd. As I was getting up to where he was sitting, I was thinking that I wouldn't really have time to explain anything about the book, because there were also people behind me waiting to get autographs. I was also afraid I wouldn't remember to take a picture of Todd with the book, or ask to get the photo signed. When I spotted the Tara mob again, looking smaller, and also heading steadily towards the exit door, I knew I had to make a quick decision. I had a feeling that Tara was on her way out of the place. I left my spot in front of Todd (even though I was almost to him), and headed to the exit door myself to catch Tara on her way out. As she made her way towards the door (stopping every two feet to sign more autographs and pose for more pictures with people), I could hear the arena staff telling her "that's all" and things of that nature. It was obvious they were trying to clear the room, and end the evening. They probably figured that as long as Tara was there no one would leave, and they were probably right! Luckily I had gotten to the exit door first, so I called out to Tara as she was being ushered out of the room. The arena staff heard me and said something to Tara about her having to go to another room. Tara gave them the most innocent look, smiled and said, "I know, I'm coming", and then proceeded to halt her exit and took the time to get the book! She also took the time to listen while I explained what the book was, and about the different sections in it. When I was telling her about it, she said, "Oh, that's so cool!" about one part of the book, "neat" about another part of the book, and she also told me that she couldn't wait to read it! There were two parts of the project that I couldn't fit in the actual book, so I had bought a matching gift bag, and put the book in there with the other two parts. It worked out well because several people at the reception had given Tara flowers, and she now had something to carry them in, since there was plenty of room in the gift bag. Before she left I asked Tara if I could take a picture of her with the book to show the people who had contributed to it. She said "sure!" and patiently posed while I struggled a bit with my camera. After I finally got the photo taken, I thanked Tara and we said goodbye, and she thanked me again for the book! I was feeling quite accomplished at this point, because I had never done a fan project like this before, and was ecstatic at the fact that it had turned out so well, and that I was actually able to give it to Tara in person. Initially I had wondered the same thing as I did about Todd: whether it would be more of a burden to give Tara something like that there. I was happy that the bag actually came in handy for her, and the book itself was quite thin and portable, so I was glad about how all that worked out. I turned around at this point to look over at the skaters' table, fully expecting to see that the line for Todd had dwindled. Well, not only had it dwindled, it had disappeared outright! As had Todd! I spotted his mom again and asked if he had left. She was as clueless as I was, as was his coach, who asked me to tell Todd he was looking for him if I spotted him! I was half-kicking myself for not just giving Todd the book in the first place. I didn't get too upset with myself because I realized soon enough that if I had not left his line when I did, I would have surely missed Tara. And of the two I had a feeling it would be easier to catch up with Todd again, especially since I was going to the Hershey's Challenge coming up on Sunday. Todd's mom offered to give him the book, and I almost took her up on that, but I explained that I would like to take a picture of Todd with the book if at all possible, and that I would just try again another time. She understood and wished me luck. Did I mention she is SOOOO nice? If my mom ever disowns me, I will ask Ruth to adopt me. After leaving the arena, I decided to go to the only hotel I saw anywhere nearby. I was definitely not planning on driving back to Ohio that evening, especially having had almost no sleep, and experiencing the trauma of the drive to Philly! When I got to the hotel, the first place I went was not the front desk, but to check out the lounge. I figured that I might as well try. As I walked through the door, who should be sitting at the very first stool, talking to his mom? I was honestly not even that surprised. I was glad that I had thought to bring the book inside just in case. I didn't really want to interrupt their conversation, but I did want to give Todd the book, of course. I walked up and said hello to Ruth first, who said, "Oh, you found him!" She didn't look at all alarmed, lol, but pleased! She actually told me to show him the book! Then I teased Todd about the fact that no one could find him anywhere, not his mom, his dad, his coach, or me! I explained to him why I needed to find him (so at least he would know it wasn't to stalk him!). I took out the book and gave it to him. I explained that the project was organized and put together by Jordi, who has an awesome site called "Skating Haven" in his honor. He flipped through the book and said some very nice things about it, but as I tend to blackout at times where Todd is concerned, I can't recall exactly what he said! I do know that the adjectives "neat" and "cool" were in there somewhere. I asked Todd if I could take a picture of him with the book, and he graciously held it up to pose with it. I suddenly remembered the photo that I was carrying, and asked if he wouldn't mind signing it to Skating Haven. (I was a little distraught because I have never, ever, ever asked anyone for an autograph while they were relaxing, and I felt a bit bad about it). But Todd said he would sign the photo, and didn't seem at all bothered to do so. The only problem was that I wasn't at all prepared like I had been over at the arena. I suddenly couldn't find my Sharpie, and without that there wouldn't have been much point. So as he held the picture waiting to sign it, I finally had to set all my various bags of stuff on the floor, kneel down on the floor myself, and proceed to rifle through EVERYTHING in search of that elusive Sharpie. This actually took several minutes which seemed like decades! I would look up from time to time at Todd sitting right above me, to see if he looked annoyed yet. But he was such a sport about it, and just held the picture and started talking to his mom again, giving me all the time I needed to find that blasted pen! I was entirely mortified by this point, imagining in my head what I must look like, sitting on the floor beside Todd's stool like that! Finally I located that evil pen, and gave it to Todd along with my profuse apologies. He still looked unfazed and placed the photo in his lap to sign it. I wondered why until I realized that the bar was somewhat wet in spots, and Todd was just being extraordinarily considerate (again) in keeping the picture dry by not placing it there. I wondered if most other people would've even noticed that. Todd strikes me as a very neat (tidy) person, so I doubted that they would've. I am a slob myself, so I totally would've just put that picture in water, without even realizing it until it was too late. I added that to my list of reasons to be a Todd Eldredge fan (though I have lost count of how many reasons there actually are!). After getting my mission accomplished, I thanked Todd and his mom and left them in peace. His dad was there too, though I didn't see him come in since I so busy sitting on the floor when that must've happened. LOL I got myself a table, and for the first time that day, was able to just relax without feeling that there was something that I had to do. It was very nice to finally be able to sit down and do absolutely nothing! One thing that struck me as funny was that the two Todds (Eldredge and Sand) played a video game called "The Golden Tee" for at least two hours! I remembered a quote from Todd saying that they both wanted to play on the Senior PGA tour when their skating careers were over. I thought it was hilarious that they are obviously still very much planning that!

Todd's thank-you for the gift; photo courtesy J. Barry Mittan.