A memorial fund has also been established through the National Bank of Blacksburg. Donations should be made payable to the Deriek Crouse Memorial Fund and sent to the attention of Dana Sutphin, PO BOX 90002 Blacksburg Virginia 24062-9002
Information regarding visitation and funeral services will follow once complete.

Thanks again for your continued thoughts and prayers during this most difficult time for the Virginia Tech Police Department and our community !

NASA has been hosting tweetups for each of the shuttle launches, allowing 150 randomly-drawn participants to take part in an amazing experience at Kennedy Space Center. While each tweetup is different, they generally involve listening to people in various capacities at NASA, including astronauts, as well as some people from the “outside world”. Jason Goldman (@goldman), the former VP of Product at Twitter, was a speaker at the last tweetup. NASA Tweetups attendees also get to tour KSC and generally see and do things that the general public does not often (or ever) get to do. This already amazing experience is capped off with the opportunity to view the shuttle launch from the press site, the closest point a person can get to the launch.

I have become friends with several people from the STS-133 NASA Tweetup and have heard their experiences and seen their pictures and videos. Having been a huge space and NASA fan most of my life (OK, you can say “geek”!), I knew I also wanted to attend the tweetup. As I mentioned, NASA only selects 150 people. They open a registration page for 24 hours for you to join the “lottery”, and then you wait. In my case, it turned out that I waited, and then waited some more.  I was put on the “wait list” for one round of selections without hearing anything. Finally, on Wednesday, I received the following email:

Dear Blake Raab,

Congratulations, your registration has been selected to attend the NASA Tweetup at space shuttle Endeavour’s targeted launch April 18-19 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida! The event will provide you the opportunity to speak with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts, and managers, and to experience the launch of space shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station.

Now why am I attending? This is primarily a personal trip for me. I would like to emphasize that Bears on Patrol’s funds are NOT being used to pay for this trip. However, I will be taking Fuzz Aldrin, our teddy bear who will be traveling to near space in a balloon to raise awareness for BOPS (more about his mission here). I’m not sure I’m allowed to officially advertise or promote anything there, but, unofficially, I will have informal conversations with anyone who wants to know about the bear and what we’re doing.

I encourage you to follow us on Twitter (@BearsOnPatrol) and we will do our best to share this once-in-a-lifetime experience with all of you through Tweets, pictures, and video.

Thank you so much for the bears.  I picked up the box at headquarters today and my area commander was thrilled with them.  My daughter and I will continue to fund raise and hopefully we can get another shipment for some of the other patrol areas at a later date.

Anything I can do to help the foundation just let me know.

I had the opportunity to give out another bear this afternoon.  This time, to a 2 year old kid who had just suffered from a temperature-induced seizure.  He was stable after a few minutes, which allowed me to run to the car and bring him a bear.  He obviously still felt pretty lousy, but he held the bear with all his strength and hugged the crap out of it while he was being loaded into the ambulance and transported to the hospital.  Considering what he had just gone through, I wasn’t expecting a smile, but his actions absolutely showed his appreciation and I know it made it an easier experience for him.

Blake, the effect of these bears never cease to amaze me.  It is such a simple idea, but it means the world of difference to the child, not to mention the parents in this case.  After having witnessed their child nearly lifeless, they were thrilled to see their child do something child-like by grabbing the bear.

I cannot thank you and the organization enough.

If you would like to help this family through the holidays, you can send cards and gifts to:

Rachel
c/o Cathy Cheveney, 13583 Filly Court, Gainesville, VA 20155

I wanted to again thank you for the bears. They turned out very nice and we appreciate your kindness very much.  I also wanted to let you know that a bear has already made a 4 year old little girl very happy. There is a 4 year old girl that attends day care at the high school in which I work. She recently was subjected to an inquiry from Division of Children and Famililies. Although it turned out she was not abused, (thank God) she went through a lot with all the questions! I thought  she deserved the 1^st bear. She loved it!!!

Just wanted to let you know of a story from earlier tonight.

We were dispatched to a residence for a three year old girl that was choking for approximately 10 minutes.  Upon arrival, the girl seemed to have dislodged whatever the obstruction was, however, she was still extremely upset (as were her parents, as you can imagine).  She was crying and holding her throat as if in pain.  EMT’s arrived and confirmed her lungs were clear and it did not appear that she had anything stuck in her airway.  While the EMT’s were assessing her, I was able to go to my patrol car and grab a bear.  The EMT’s cleared the scene and I gave her the bear.  She instantly went from crying, scared, and overwhelmed to smiling.  Like I said in my last “bear story”, it was almost comical how fast she went from absolutely terrified to perfectly calm and content.  I also noticed that as soon as the little girl started playing with the bear and breathing/speaking normally, the parents were immediately relieved.  In this case, one bear was able to immediately put everyone at ease.

These bears are like flipping a switch on these kids, it’s amazing.

Thanks again for all you do Blake…it is appreciated more than you know.  I will be submitting an application for more bears later tonight.