Why the Owl?
Recently I have had a lot of people ask me “Why the Owl?”
Well in order to explain it I will have to tell a little story.
My
grandfather worked in the FBI and Police forces in both California and Oregon.
In his time in the force he gained the nickname of Owl Man due to the way he
would sweep in and deal with any situation that would occur. My grandfather had
a love for owls and collected them avidly. On September 11, 2001 my grandfather
was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. When my grandfather passed away on October
29th my family found ourselves to have inherited the fellow love of
owls. The following summer my family attended the annual Relay for Life
(American Cancer Association). One of my first Memories of the relay was how I
saw kids my own age wearing the cancer survival shirts. At that point I decided
I wanted to help. I have been playing the drums and piano since I was in second
grade and learned how music can help make someone feel better. When it came
time for me to decide what to do for my senior project I began researching how
I could volunteer at the local hospitals and bring in music for the kids.
Unfortunately majority of the programs at the hospitals required the volunteers
to be above 18 years of age and my 18th birthday fell at the end of
my senior year. In doing more research my parents and I found that if I were to
start my own non-profit we could by-pass the age restrictions in some
locations. When deciding a name for the company we knew we needed to keep to
the Owl theme of our family, and so that is why the name is Owl Be Better With
Music. Our first summer in 2011 was definitely a challenge. Many hospitals
already had large non Profit organizations that kept us from being able to
volunteer, but luckily we got redirected to Shriner’s Hospital in Portland
Oregon. Susan Gallegos head of child life resource’s helped us gain a time slot
to bring in musicians on October 26th 2011. This date has much
significance to my family as it was the day we had to bring my grandfather home
from the hospital. Ten years after we brought my grandfather home for in home
hospice care we had our first event at Shriner’s Hospital. The entire time of
the event there was an energy in the air that was indescribable. There was so
much love and joy in the hospital rooms that we visited it was easy to realize
that no matter what happened we had to keep this company going. Now looking
back over the two years that we have been running I can definitely say we have
had our rough days but the smiles we get to witness at each of our events make
each and every one of those bumps along the way worth it. I am overjoyed and
excited to see what the future holds for my company, and every milestone we
make I can’t help but to think about my grandfather, the OwlMan looking down on
us and cheering us on. All of what we do is in dedication to Frank Barbarick
(Aka OwlMan).
