Eric Hibler's Pittsburgh Fight Club





	EULOGY Richard Hibler DDS S P O N S O R S

On Saturday, June 12, we were hit by a flash flood that sent 3 feet of contaminated water through our entire facility. We do not have flood insurance and our losses are over $100,000.00. Please give what you can to help us rebuild.

I'm writing this story to let everyone understand what happened to us and give some insight into the overwhelming drama we have been through from this most unfortunate occurrence in our lives and our member’s lives at Eric Hibler's Pittsburgh Fight Club.

READ THE UPDATE

The Pittsburgh Fight Club has been a dream of mine for most of my adult life and was everything I could put into an empty basement to make it the best mixed martial artists training center I could. Since I grew up with very little and trained the majority of my life, some 25 years as a starving artist and athlete in a 20x20 garage gym this World Class facility was a dream come true.

My Pittsburgh Fight Club was a place that drew all different types of people and received world wide attention for it’s, ahead of its time, design and functionality. This was a beautiful 10,000 square foot facility with an integrated functionality that enhanced the programming and supported the dynamics of true Mixed Martial Arts training. My club was not just an empty basement filled with martial arts stuff either. It was very carefully thought out with respect to ambiance, functionality and safety, to give the mixed martial arts student an experience in mixed martial arts training that would excite them to be there every time they came to train. From the moment people opened my door they were in awe of its beauty, design and immaculate cleanliness. I took great care of my Club to give everyone a reason to want to come and train there everyday.

I know there are many misconceptions of what a facility like Pittsburgh Fight Club represents. I had to convince investors that my ideas would work when MMA was still considered barbaric human cock fighting and not even a true martial arts expression. So many things were different just a short time ago. There were no established mixed martial arts organizations, no support from a fan base except for a small underground contingent. There were no equipment or clothing companies, no leagues, no willingness to share ideas openly and even the events were limited to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a few like events that happened once or twice a year.

I want everyone to understand what it took to put together such a place because I know that there are so many misconceptions around what a facility like the Pittsburgh Fight Club took to build and what it represented. It took me years to iron out its functional design, to find the location that could accommodate my ideas and be affordable enough to implement them. I had nothing to work with so I had to convince potential investors that my ideas would work when MMA was still considered just barbaric human cock fighting and not even a true martial arts expression. So many things were different just a short time ago. There were no established mixed martial arts organizations, no support from a fan base except for a small underground contingent, there were no established equipment or, clothing companies, no MMA organizations, no willingness to share ideas openly between disciplines and even the events were very limited to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a few other like events that happened once or twice a year.

My Pittsburgh Fight Club was so ahead of its time that it made it even harder to get it started up and rolling when there was nothing really to support its existence in the first place. No one knew what I was trying to do and most thought of it as, just a bunch of guys in a basement beating each other and making soap! This was because of its name, “Pittsburgh Fight Club.” Similar to the movie with, “Brad Pitt” and Edward Norton” called, “Fight Club”. However, the name, “Pittsburgh Fight Club” was a name that stuck out in my mind because it was given to me by promoters and other fighters for the Professional mixed martial arts fight team I had developed in my garage gym years earlier and competed with in large mma events for the World Extreme Fighting organization. Never the less, I had a lot of drive and that's what it took to get it going. I scrimped together everything that I had monetarily and found some venture capital investment and went to work at figuring out the necessary components to put it all together. I had support from my business minded wife, who helped me to understand the inner workings of business and take me to the next level out of the starving artist mode I was living in. I hired her best friend a part time interior designer to give the club those sharp lines and the beautiful color coordinated look to it that was so amazing to anyone who walked in the door. My business partner's fabrication sign shop helped with the design of my MMA cage and mobilization of so many initial aspects of construction of the facility. I literally spent 24 hours a day 7 days a week for 6months working and living in the gym while I was building it. I literally built it by hand to get it ready for my deadline of an opening day and first months rent payment. It was the hardest thing I had ever done and it just about killed me.

Once we opened it wasn't a party either. I had the first six months of coming to work and facing every kind of thug, hoodlum and wannabe MMA fighter in Pittsburgh City. They were showing up to fight with no idea of the real sport or, the schooling and intense conditioning training that accompanies true mixed martial arts competition. My two instructors and I fought everyone who came into the gym in the cage one after another taking on all comers. Sometimes we were fighting as many as 10 or 15 fights individually each night. Most of them were just trying to prove they were tough. This was just because I had no real way of convincing people that there needed to be a structured curriculum. With this new sport there wasn’t really one so I had to experiment and invent it from my own fighting and training experience. It was always about who was the toughest that night and then I’d never see them again. Eventually that all calmed down but, then there were still so many other problems with the old building itself. We had constant ground water seepage, the roof leaked, and my neighbors were irresponsible and treated me like I was just a basement gym. They dumped all manner of stuff from the testing facility above me, down on top of me, through the ceiling with no regard for my facility or my members. Or they would let wood and garbage pile up to the point of rats and raccoons would be roaming the parking lot at night. I literally had a brain seizsure from the anxiety and stress of dealing with all the problems the club initially put on me. I was robbed through all phases of the construction and early operation of the fight club, 3-4 times the first year alone and 2-3 times the second. So much so, I had to have a professional security system installed and a chain linked and locked gate installed to protect me from invading theves. Even the programming in the facility has had to change several times do to instructor changes and to accommodate the interests on my potential new members and the needs of my established members. Owning a business such as this is a constant revolving door of members and is very scary when times are lean like the ones involving recession and especially the uncertainty we are facing now.

To keep this story short I will now just give you an idea of the events of last Saturday night June 5th and our shocking experience at the Fight Club during the storm. Thanks for trying to understand my story if you read the above information. I realize every business if rot with hard times and uncertainty, that’s what makes you or breaks you, and that's why we are continuing to endeavor to persevere.

Last week we were finishing up mma submission wrestling class and as we punched, tackled and took each other down and wrestled for submissions, just like we do most every night, the storm outside became louder and louder. Usually you can't hear much inside the Fight Club because we’re half underground but, it was really loud thunder and lighting! Class was wrapping up and as usual I was running around catching leaks with buckets and the Sham Wows I place around the walls when it rains. Suddenly, in our laundry, sewer water started to come out from under the furnace and leaking into my Private Training room. At first it was just a little and then the sewers started to back up and erupt like a Volcano! Back Flow from the storm came out in a rush of water that eventually submerged my Private training room completely. It wasn't good but it was about par for Hurricane season in June every year. Later, even the toilets backed up, which is a regular occurrence during bad storms since the building is old and the plumbing is not separated. I wasn't happy but we cleaned up the best we could and I stayed most of the night to monitor the mess and clean up each small surge because the storm raged all night. No big deal, the next couple of days we sucked the water out and I brought in a friend and student of mine Shaun McCalla who had graciously offered his services as a carpet cleaner. Shaun was a life saver and we worked all day Saturday to disinfect and steam clean the entire club so, it would be beautiful and smell wonderful. I was so happy, it made the Fight Club seem like it was brand new, which was important to me to top off the Spring cleaning efforts we made the weekend before and kick off our 8-14 youth MMA camp in conjunction with the World class Umberger Performance Gym right next door to us.

Just as Shaun and I were literally finishing up the final section of carpet, a good 7 to 8 hour job is when it happened... It had been raining and raining pretty hard all day but, it wasn't leaking that bad at the time, and we were feeling quite optimistic about our accomplishment when the first burp of water happened. Kind of like when the shoreline is sucked-out before the Tsunami. We had the hose from the carpet truck still coming in the front door and had to suck up some of the rain water once or twice as it filled up the entry way. Not a problem, just par for the course but, this was different, the burp was just like this slow surge of water that came in and flowed around the front desk and into the gym all the way up to the edge of the bag area mats and the cage and the boxing ring. Then we were like, awe shit! After all that work, now we're going to have to clean this mess up for a couple more hours. I thought it was the sewers backing up again, and Shaun thought his dirty water tank had overflowed from the truck. So in a slight panic we were lifting mats and trying to take down bags to protect anything we could. My wife was desperately putting down towels to stop the water from advancing any further towards the back of the Club. This seems kind of funny now in light of the destruction but, it was just shear panic to stop the water from making any more advancing mess. Unfortunately it was all for not, because then it happened... Shaun slopped his way to the door and said coach there's a river in the parking lot coming and I've got to move my company van before it's washed away and you better move your wife’s car. And then at that very next moment water slammed in through the garage doors buckling them at like 35 miles per hour waist level deep and knocked us down. It actually picked up a 300lb guest seating bench at my front door and washed it into my hip. We scrambled out the door as the torrent began to hit full force...

Shaun moved the Carpet Van which was beginning to rock and was taking the brunt of the initial blast of raging water. I jumped into my wife’s car, which at this point had been submerged with water coming in the windows into my lap and was shorting out the electrical system. The giant extra large dumpster in the corner of the lot was completely full and the water picked it up like a toy and threw it into the raging Campbells Run creek, which at this time was above its banks and moving very very fast. I got my wife’s car started and whipped it around caught a tire and backed it out miraculously, while Shaun was screaming, get out of there coach it's to late you’re gonna die! Ha Ha almost… Then we waded back in through the deluge to find my wife barricaded in the kitchen at the back of the Club trapped with the water level ever rising and moving right through the whole building destroying everything in its path. My beautiful Zebra mma mats were now floating and my Jujitsu deck was ripped from the wall. The sewage shit water was contaminating everything I had, and leveling everything at the same time. This wasn't the end though by any means. After this went on for a good 20 minutes or, so a backflow started to form and all the water started rushing back out the door and taking everything with it. My Pro-shop literally floated right out the front door. We escaped to higher ground and could do nothing but stand there and watch till the torrent receded for fear of being sucked down stream or electrocuted.

Once the blast of water was over, a true catastrophic flash flood, we were in shock. We tried to rescue anything we could but everything was under water. I’m truly sorry I couldn't have had the, wear with all, to snap pictures or, video the flood as it was happening but, there just wasn’t time to think and I was so stunned that I couldn't stop it or, do anything about it that the time just went by. I tried to snap some photos of the aftermath but, I was desperately trying to save my things and I was exhausted from the whole day’s events. I'll continue to put up pictures of the flood aftermath and our salvage efforts and restoration if we have any.

Then suddenly, the water changed direction and started flowing back out the door, taking everything it could with it.

All three of us waded back in and just stood staring at the damage. We were in shock. Some of our students who were supposed to come to help us move back equipment from the carpet cleaning starting arriving. They had no idea what had just happened. We tried to rescue anything we could. Everything was under water. I am truly sorry I didn’t have the presence of mind to snap pictures or video the flood as it was happening. There just wasn't time to think and I was so stunned that I couldn't stop it or do anything to save my club. I did take some photos of the aftermath, for the most part I was desperately trying to save my things and I was exhausted from the whole day’s events. .

Final thoughts

I want everyone to understand how demoralizing and uncertain things are when something unexpected like this happens to you. I have been dealing with the situation of my Fight Club as I have explained for years down on Campbells Run Road. I fought hard to have it. It’s my home away from home. I probably spend more time there than I do at home, just ask my wife. It's all I have and everything I ever worked for. I do everything there that means anything to me and I treat the Fight Club as if it were my home. I only let people belong there that understand that, and I‘m very strict about the way the Gym is portrayed or trained in. It is a place that I loved and worked very hard at to build.

I don't have any answers to give anyone as to what will happen now. We did not have Catastrophic Flood Insurance because we are not on a flood plane. Catrastrophic is what insurance companies call it when they are trying to differentiate the different levels of damage responsibility. We were considered a level 3 out of 4. Sometimes one kind of insurance cancels others out. I don't know if I'll have the funds or, the time to rebuild this place because nothing is certain. The liability of the damaged equipment is very high once you've been condemned. I could be fined or, sued for everything I have left if I open to the public with what's left being declared a public health hazard. Everything is just timing and luck. There are no definites whatsoever.

The whole reason this happened is even up for debate. We had an inordinate amount of rain come down last Saturday. Someone told me 2 inches in an hour and that was on top of the previous rain storm that dumped some other huge amount of water first. I know I was cleaning up the mess after that storm. Also this was the first big storm that has happened since they built Settlers Ridge Mall up the street. It was completed in a rush and has very small and insufficient reservoir. Of course there's the New Carpenters Union and the fact that Mosites construction carved off the top of the entire hillside on the opposite side of the new widened highway job that Penn Dot just finished as well right beside me. Now all the water is draining down the mountain straight through the culvert tunnel underneath the Highway. It points directly at the Fight Club like a gun barrel. None of this was this way just a year ago.

People are asking me what I will do about suing the township or the county or whoever. That is probably a real possibility but not a sure thing either. I'm sure my Landlord is working on that right now for himself but, Class Action suits like that are huge and take a long time to pan out. We may receive some compensation in the future but that's a long way away. I have no equipment or, money to pay for insurance or, to pay my landlord who has no reason not to terminate me and let someone else move right in behind me who can pay rent. These are hard and uncertain times for me and my family. We have gone through a plethora of emotions in the last week that could span a lifetime. Everything from shock and horror to dismay and doom to glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel.

Right now the plan is to convince ourselves that we are going to somehow recover from this horrible disaster and rebuild until we are back on our feet and up and running. The facility was worth quite a bit and it wouldn't be cheap to put it back together. We have nothing financially to work with now and my partner wants to sever all ties with me too. I'm not sure we will be able to do anything without some kind of aide from interested good people. However, I would really like to thank my friends and students who have sacrificed their time and effort to help me through this terrible event with the salvage and the cleaning of what survived. It shows me who my friends really are and how much I'm appreciated by my students. I know that my wife and I cried a few times because we felt like we were letting everyone down and we were so over whelmed. Every night my wife and I sit down exhausted and try to think of how to amp up for the next day. Sometimes I think things will be ok because we are fighters and fighters never give up they just keep fighting!

Please give what you can to help us rebuild.

Checks made payable to:
“Eric R. Hibler” or "Pittsburgh Fight Club”
can be mailed to:

1804 Greentree Rd
Pittsburgh, PA 15220-1812

or you can send a donation via PayPal

First Flood update approximately one month after the deluge.

Clean-up and Salvage
Well the clean-up and salvage effort has gone on for several months now. The first few weeks saw the removal of all the damaged gym equipment and office equipment being gathered up and carried out and thrown into our parking lot dumpster. Everything porous and contaminated with sewage water was either disposed of or organized into makeshift storage by its potential salvage and possible resale value. This included the hundreds of Zebra mats, heavy bags, pads, treadmills, weight training equipment, furniture, kitchen appliances, Octagon floor, the Boxing ring, the mangled Ju-jitsu decking etc…and all the carpeting throughout the entire 10,000 square feet of the club.

All that is left now is the empty shell of my once beautiful gym. It is so heart breaking to go there everyday and sift through the destroyed things that I spent so much time building and collecting. It was like little pieces of your heart and soul being left out in all kinds of weather while we decided what to try to save in an order of things. I had over 250 mats, some of which cost $200 each, just piled in the the parking lot which was also covered in layers of sewage silt left over from the flood. We desperately tried to clean and disinfect each mat in a hopeless battle to preserve them but once they were permeated by the filth and then bleached by the sun it was just kind of a hopeless battle. Each mat had to be pressure washed on both sides, then soaked in DZ7, a powerful and lethal chemical, to kill potential germs for 10 minutes on each side, then pressure rinsed on each side and layed out in the sun to dry for days. Then they had to be put into storage. This process took teams of people approximately 6 - 7 hours for every 40 mats. The maximum amount of space we had available for drying at one time weather permitting of course. It was amazing how long it took them to dry. They’re vinyl on one side and you could literally smell the glue melting in the intense heat we experienced. The other side of the mat is like a giant sponge which really makes them useless to be thought of as recoverable. All I may be able to do is hope to sell them at a great loss since they could not be used again publicly for fear of liability or fines. It’s just so hard to watch tens of thousands of dollars sit and rot without trying to do something. Your gut just tells you to do something, anything though, whether it’s futile or not…

Status of the building and restoration
The building sustained over $100,000.00 worth of damage to the walls, plumbing and its structural integrity. Unfortunately not only my part of the building but, several other businesses that occupy it were damaged as well. My floors have to be torn up through the foundation to repair the plumbing from the immense back pressure that rammed up through the pipes. This pressure was so great that it blew off the covers of the drains and lifted my Ju-jitsu decks up off the floor, as I’ve said before. It pretty much ruined the plumbing throughout the entire bottom of the building. This fix-up process requires jack hammering up the foundation to lay new lines and more effective plumbing to protect this from ever being able to happen again. Now what’s left of my Club is covered in concrete dust which is just as bad if not worse than the poop scum mud left by the flood. This dust sticks to everything and will be just as difficult to clean off the walls, ceilings and floors. This also ruins any chance of temporary training usage of the gym in the coming weeks, something I was hoping I could do to supplement my loss of income and give my regulars and private students a place to train while I try to figure out another solution to the loss of training time and my personal income.

Continual flooding from the distorted drainage problems
On top of all of this, nothing has been done to alleviate the drainage problems of the Campbells Run water shed and its tributaries. My Club has flooded a total of 4 times since the end of May. We are expecting heavy thunderstorms all summer and I’m sure it will be flooded again. I’m a nervous wreck every time it rains hard. Once the ground is saturated the additional water has no where else to go. The water already races down Campbells Run at a ridiculous speed each time it rains. I have collected photos and video footage to prove it. Nothing like this ever happened in the 4-5 years I’ve been at my location whether we had hard rains or not. Only since the completion of all the new construction on the surrounding hill sides, highway, and Campbell’s run road has it become such a raging water flume for potential flooding. Of course, all potential guilty parties are just passing the buck to avoid any blame. What a load of BS it is as they perform weekly patch work on their prospective problem sites.
Effects of the relief efforts
I’m sorry to say the effects of my relief efforts are minimal at best. I have contacted local area big businesses such as Lowes, Home Depot, IKEA, Wal-Mart, Costco, and many other mixed martial arts businesses whom I have I patronized, spending tens of thousands of dollars with over the years. I have heard back from only a few. Their offers to assist me with aid or even the smallest discounts have been shit. I was offered a $25 gift certificate from Costco, a company of which I have been a premium business member for over ten years. This is not only very disappointing but also demoralizing. All those commercials where they say we are there for you, to help you, to take care of you, ha what a load of marketing crap! I wasn’t expecting anything for free. But you would think they would offer at least some kind of discounted prices for the large amounts of materials goods and services I purchased over the 30 years I’ve been in business as a martial arts business owner in the area. Fuck all of them…

In addition I can’t say I have all that much that is good to say about the Pittsburgh media in this supposed home town of mine either. With the exception of the Tribune Review, KDKA, and WXDX, I have been literally blown off by the headline grabbing media of this town. If I wasn’t going to be a front page story that was shown on Channel 11 at 6 o’clock then no one was interested in what happened to the only professionally run mixed martial arts gym for 50 square miles. What a joke this town is with its “we take care of our own” attitude. I wasn’t only ignored I was swept by the way side in favor of potential stories concerning other things going on in town. No television station following up on phone calls or the Post Gazette doing anything more than interviewing me and hoping for some dramatic destruction of the entire building and surrounding area. No one gives a flying crap about the little guy trying to survive, losing his income or the loss of a World Class facility in the area.

Temporary solutions for substitute training facility
So far I’m trying unsuccessfully to find temporary solutions to the problem of a substitute training facility. I have thought of everything from matting the deck on the back of my house to opening up in an alternate location. Unfortunately these ideas are limited with either a lack of useable space, equipment, or most importantly - affordability. I wanted to use the Fight Club itself as a temporary fix but the restoration has created so much dust and dirt that it’s impossible to breath. There’s also the constant low level flooding and increasing ground water leakage.

I may rebuild the garage gym I ran at my parents’ for so many years and teach small groups and private/semi-private lessons. However, this would be at a great inconvenience to my mother. With my father passing on July 15th it may be out of the question all together. His long illness and recent death has put a great deal of added pressure on me and my ability to solve problems and focus properly on mixed martial arts teaching and training. Moving the Fight Club is simply cost prohibitive for me and not something I think I’m capable of while trying to maintain my right to stay at my present location with the time limited deal I have worked out with my landlord. He has agreed to let me store some of my salvaged equipment in another part of the building while the restoration is underway. Whenever that is… He is also demanding I pay for the last 2months while he waited for his insurance to come through. Meanwhile the Club wasn’t even serviceable… I don’t want to push my luck. For now I will probably have to relegate myself to teaching makeshift classes in other local area clubs here and there to earn some sort of income to make ends meet. It’s really hard to be constantly broke. I’m sorry if that disappoints anyone but, it’s a matter of shear survival and I really don’t have a lot of options. I may even be looking for a regular job soon to keep my sanity and to help pay the bills around the house and at the Club.

Fight Team training
It’s a crying shame that the members of my mixed martial arts fight team are left out in the wind to twist. However, there’s very little I can do to help anyone realize their martial arts competition dreams right now. I was very proud of the diverse programming I developed to give the average person off the street a chance to come in and prove themselves and become real trained mma fighter. I believe my programming process was second to none and exhibited a very complete system of mixed martial arts covering every aspect of the fight game. We competed successfully as boxers, Ju-jitsu players and I think it’s pretty safe to say after 4 years of mma competition and a solid 75% win record that we were unequaled in the Tri-state area as a true mixed martial arts fighting team. We were a force to be reckoned with at the “Cage of Chaos” events in which we competed regularly. I feel sorry for the kids who wanted a chance at something better than the second rate instruction they’re finding in Pittsburgh area garage gyms, high schools and various other shit-hole gyms. Frankly that is pretty much what they’re left to deal with as there are literally no other World Class facilities and mma instruction in the in the entire Tri-State area.

Class action suit and federal investigation
Will there be a Class action lawsuit? It’s hard to say. But I would imagine there will be some kind of lawsuits at least on an individual basis. There are other homes and businesses up and down Campbells run road that have been affected by the flooding as of late. Some have suffered catastrophic losses just as bad as mine. Whether or not the irresponsible parties will be brought to answer for their negligence remains to be seen. There’s no way to predict an eventual outcome when big business and the State are the conspirators in such events and under goings as these. These things are up to legal twisting and who has the most money to keep the proceedings going on the longest. Finding some type of suitable outcomes to heal the injured parties and their properties takes a lot of finger crossed luck and time. I can assure you in any case it will take a very long time to come to conclusions. Most will be forced to settle for whatever they are offered.

I will continue to monitor my situation on a day to day, storm to storm, basis. That is all I really can do for the time being. I’ll be attending every town meeting and paying close attention to the investigations. There is talk of a Federal investigation being appropriated. I know that the EPA and the DEP as well as the Allegheny Conservation District are interested in the environmental impacts this mess has caused. You know they will get to the bottom of it one way or another for the communities sake as a whole. On the other hand, the small business owners and individual residences will have to find legal council at their own expense and find whatever solace they can in the outcomes of the ongoing investigations. I keep my fingers crossed and curse the responsible parties and hope everyday some kind of justice will be served. (M*@#(&$…)

Strain of Biblical proportions for future outlook.
My body had taken a pounding in the last several years and at age 46, so this is not all bad for me physically. I really needed a personal training break. My doctor has been suggesting I take a break for over a year and give the crushed discs in my back a rest. Hardcore training has taken its toll on me over the years. Every morning it’s harder and harder to get out of bed. I loved mixed martial arts more than anything else and it gave my life purpose but was hard on me physically. I tried to put all I had into the teaching and training of my wide array of students needs. I gave 100% every day and in every class to give my students the best mma and I had to offer.

I believe I was a true pioneer in this part of the country and this sport, competing long before it was excepted or popular. I gave all I had to a new sport even before its time was here. It’s sad that things came to such an abrupt ending before I got to really finish what I had started. My martial arts mentor, Don Garon, called the other day to ask me how I was holding up. He told me that people like him and me will always make a comeback because we are different from others and look for new opportunities to arise out of the ashes of our defeats. Don also suffered defeat with first a fire and then several floods at his Pennsylvania Karate Academy. I hope he’s right because I feel somewhat defeated through no fault of my own and my opportunities for recovery are few and far between. The Martial Arts are all I’ve ever known, and are the vehicle which has carried me around my whole life.

I hope by some miracle that I’ll be able to be back on top again and able to go back to what I love doing and be all I can be in the Pittsburgh area. Like I said originally, I truly love what I do and real fighters like me never give up trying anyway, they just keep on fighting…

Please support my relief efforts - it’s never too little or too late to help.

Thank you,

Eric R. Hibler

PS: I truly appreciate the people who have offered their time to help me do things like cleaning and salvaging stuff. Also friends who are holding fundraisers for me like the Independent MMA Crew. Their benefit took place at the Royal on Rt. 88 on July 24th. They’re my competition for Pete’s sake! There was another held at Duke’s Rib House and Grill on Saturday, August 7. This benefit revolved around the UFC event featuring Silva vs. Sonne.

I would also like to express thanks to anyone who may have contributed to my relief fund. It doesn’t amount to much monetarily but it’s the thought that really does count at the end of the day. To those decent people I’m grateful and beholden. Thank you very much to all of you.