Rugby Newsletter

[David Codell]

River,

It is with a heavy heart that I begin this week's newsletter by informing you that Lucas Brickley's mother has passed away. Lucas is an outstanding rugby player and an even better person and I know that I speak for the entirety of our rugby community when I say that he and his family will remain in our thoughts and prayers. I also know that all of Lucas' teammates past and present will step up and do whatever we can to help the Brickley family through this time.

Lucas, we love you, we care about you, and we are all here for you. You are our brother.

Toys for Tots ended up being a tremendous success last week and it is obviously an event that resonates with our Club on a very deep level. All of the people that we partnered with for this event were completely blown away by our collective generosity. You should all be extremely proud of yourselves.

Sometimes I hesitate to single out any individuals because you risk leaving someone out who deserves recognition but I think Ryan McHugh certainly deserves a shout out for taking all of the donation money and purchasing/transporting more than $2K worth of toys down to O'Neal's and Josh Mastromatto (alongside Rego Delivery) deserves recognition for using to company van to haul everything. There are tons of other people that have been stepping up (Zeb, Ruiz) and making the most of a rough year so I really appreciate all of you.

It came down to the wire but our combined virtual food drive with the Gryphons and Philly Women did end up hitting the $3K goal that we set. These two combined projects are a good start to our partnership and I think they show a desire to work together for the betterment of our city and the game of rugby. I'm very much looking forward to the opportunity to do some on-field development in the future as well.

In case Christmas and New Years eat up my time and I don't get another message out I hope that all of you enjoy your holidays and stay safe.

Looking forward to hopefully catching up in person one day soon.

Thanks,

Codell