HOWARD SHAPIRO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to all of my friends at Animal Inc. and Animal Media Group (especially Michael Killen, Kathy Dziubek and Jim Kreitzburg) you guys made this all possible and for that I will always be grateful and appreciative! Our former interns who helped tremendously with research and transcription: Mark Slabinski, Tyler Rice, Lindsay Lehrman, Dustin Furman, Aurelia Henderson, Colleen Cavolo, Marlee Schneider, Haley Kittel, Lauren Simmons, Ryan McIntyre and extra special thanks to Elana Goldberg for her editorial and creative help. Danielle Hykes, Esq., Anthony Brooks, Esq., Joe Migliozzi, Mario Lemieux, Dr. Clark Gamblin and Kevin Kernan for their great back cover quotes and Joe Maddon for the wonderful Foreword for the book that he wrote.
Very special thanks to everyone who I interviewed and who were so gracious with their time and memories of John: Bert Pickard, Mike Tibolet, Taylor Dettore, Joe Signore, Joanna Jaworowski, Lena Holewski, Mitchell Meyers, Lisa Nardone, Andy Yeck, Adam Rose and Dan Lentz. Extra special thanks to Steve Wetzel for such a great interview as well as Mike White. It was a great honor Mike, thanks for sharing so much of your time and memories with me.
Thanks to Pilar Brown for stepping in at the 11th hour and doing a great job on the book design, to Kevin Jones for creating such a great cover and to Christina Frey for her time and help on editing and proofing the book. Thank you to Kevin Finley for his work on the publicity and marketing fronts. I also wanted to single out and say thanks to Christina Ahn Hickey. You are a great friend and collaborator and thank you for all that you have done for me and my writing! A huge shout out to Tom Cochrane for his friendship, inspiration and the kindness extended to me over the years. . . you’re the best, my friend! To my sister Jody Shapiro and my mom Alice Shapiro whose strength and character are second to none. I love you so much.
Extra special thanks to Gina, Sasha and Nikita, I love you three more than anything in the world.
Finally, words can’t express my thanks to Scott, Gina and Lexie Challis. You three were kind enough to invite me into your home and share all of your memories of John with me and you gave me the great honor to try and tell John’s story. As I said from the first time I met you, if nothing else, I want you three to be happy with the book. Thanks again for everything!
For more information please log onto www.animalmedaigroup.com or www.howardshapiro.net. Please send your comments, questions or feedback to info@animalmediagroup.com or hockeyplayer4life@gmail.com. Please check out my pages on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hockeyplayer4life and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Howard-Shapiro/296610707017204?ref=ts Please also look for me on Goodreads and on Twitter (@hockeyplayer)
For more information or to read more about John Challis, please go the Courage for Life Foundation website at this link: