who is russ?

so....who is this russ?
and why is lauren (journey) now going to be carrying a sign about him?

i've never met russ. i've never met him "in person", anyway.
that's how awesome he is.....i haven't had to meet him "in person" to know how amazing of a person he is.

russ used to be my payroll account manager.....you know, back when i had one of those job thingies. he was amazing! sometimes i would call him 10x in a row, asking him the silliest questions, but not once did he ever get mad. he never got an attitude. if he got annoyed, he never let me know it. he had the best attitude, ever! he was always laughing, always cracking jokes, always brightening MY day! my boss and i actually developed quite a unique little friendship with him via phone calls, e-mails & faxes. my boss gave him the nickname, frosty. so....in a way, he kind of has an A.T. trail name, even though he isn't actually hiking. my job was pretty stressful, and i found it such a blessing to have such a bright personality to help ease my day.

the company i worked for actually decided to change payroll companies before i left. once they did, we had such a hard time getting a hold of russ. someone at the old company finally gave us a hint (shhh) that our amazing frosty might be going through some medical issues. we decided to google our beloved frosty and figure out what was going on. terrible news. russ told us himself that he was diagnosed with lung cancer. devastated. he had known for a little while before he told us. so...all those times he was brightening my day, he was battling something so difficult.

my former boss has been staying in touch with him all throughout my hike. she sent him a picture of me dangling off of mcafee's knob (if you haven't seen it, check out our fb trail page) and she told me he loved it. she also informed me just the other day that the cancer is gone from his lungs, but that it is now in his shoulder. prayers, prayers, prayers.

so.....this brings me to the katahdin for russ sign!
i'm hiking to katahdin for russ.....and everyone else that is fighting a difficult fight!
don't give up! don't ever, ever, ever give up!
keep fighting...and i'll keep hiking!!!
my objective is to take pictures with my new sign at all the great views..and eventually on top of my final goal...mt. katahdin!
i'm going to send them to russ along the way!

hopefully, if he is having a bad day...maybe seeing one of the pictures will at least give him a smile! a small payback for all the wonderful times that he helped brighten my day, maybe i can help brighten his!

so get ready russ, you're hiking to mt. katahdin with me!

if you can't read the quote on the bottom of the sign (which is understandable, because i have horrible handwriting) it reads.....
"some days there won't be a song in your heart. sing ANYWAY!"