My family and I purchased the CardBOARD cutout to honor my brother Aaron who passed away last December. Just like everyone else in St. Louis, we know he would've loved to have been at the stadium watching his beloved Cardinals every night along with 40,000 of his closest friends this season. He was an usher for 20 years starting out in the visitor bullpen, moving to the field on the first base side and then ending up in section 150. He truly loved his job and enjoyed every chance he got to interact with fans of all ages from 2 to 92, he made sure everyone had the best Cardinal experience every game. One of his favorite days of the season was Pooches in the Park day when his "nephew" would come visit him at work which is why we also purchased a cutout of my dog (Mac) so they could sit together in the stands. Thank you for the opportunity for Aaron to be back at home in Baseball Heaven!
CardBOARD Nation Stories
The Central figure in our row of Cardinal Cardboard Flat Fans is our son, Von. As you look at them through the Fan Cam, Von is on the far right. Von passed away unexpectedly at the age of 37 in September 2018. Since then, we have been looking for a special Memorial we could dedicate to him. The "Flat Fan" campaign was our solution. If Von can't be with us, he would want to be in St Louis watching the Team he loved with some of the people he loved. We are saddened by his absence but our hearts are bursting with that visual reference point of seeing him in the stands of Busch Stadium.
We are extremely blessed and honored that this "Flat Fan" campaign came into our lives as our Memorial to someone we miss each day and for a team he so loved. The Cardinals have always had a long history of doing the right thing for the right cause. You hit it out of the ballpark on this one! To take a quote from our Iowa Field of Dreams, and with a small reference to Von and changing it up just a bit... "Is this Heaven?" Yes, it's Busch Stadium!!! We are overjoyed that Von has found his little piece of Heaven and yes, we can see him once again, every game! Thank You is just not a strong enough word.
Yes, it's Heaven!!
When the Cardinals announced their CardBOARD Nation "flat fan" opportunity, my son called to ask me if we were going to do this... I believe my reply was "I think we have to". It was important to us to be a part of this for several reasons, first and foremost, Cardinals Care and many other charities will benefit from our modest contributions. Secondly, we still get to be a part of the Cardinals... even if it's only as a "flat fan". Finally, we did this together to have another great memory to add to the many, many others that we have which revolve around the Cardinals, the Postseasons and all the games we have been to since he was a small boy.
Caroline Oelschlaeger is a 3rd grader at Chesterfield Elementary. She is a 5th generation Cardinal fan and was born in the Cardinals World Series Championship year of 2011. Her favorite Cardinal player is Matt Carpenter and she dressed up as him for Halloween last year, even attending her ballet class dressed as him during costume day. When opening day was cancelled this year, she decided to do a Cardinals Opening Day Virtual Food Drive, partnering with the St. Louis Food Bank and raised $2,137. In August for her birthday, she held a Drive By Birthday Food Drive and collected 787 lbs. for the St. Louis Area Foodbank. In total, these donations will provide over 9000 meals for those in need in the St. Louis area. While she misses the opportunity to attend in person, she is super excited her "flat fan" is cheering on the Cardinals as they go for the playoffs!
Our favorite game to go to every year was Pooches in the Park. Her and I attended 10 of the first 13 years that it was offered. I can't say enough about how nice the staff and organizers of the event were every year. The picture I chose is one of my favorites. She was dressed as the busted "I" in Big Mac Land. Remember when Pujols knocked it out with a homerun? Pooh Bear thoroughly enjoyed all of the attention she would get during the on-field parades. When I first heard about Cardboard Nation I immediately thought what a wonderful way to honor her memory and the many wonderful memories that her and I shared at these games. Thanks for the opportunity!
Jordan was born April 2018. At 3 weeks of age we found out he had liver issues which turned out to be biliary atresia liver disease. He had a 9 hour surgery at 7 weeks old to try to save his native liver. From may 2018 to now he's been in and out of Cardinal Glennon constantly. We have been able to hold off on any other surgeries since. In January 2020 it was decided to go ahead and list him for a liver transplant. We know that transplant is inevitable at some point but until then he continues to be a happy kiddo who loves everything trucks and busses, outside, and of course Cardinal Baseball.
Possibly no fan gets as much out of the Cardinal experience, in person or on the radio, as Clifford Dahl. He's 23 and lives near Springfield and suffers from a degenerative, neurological condition known as Batten disease, in which his brain is destroying itself. Despite his challenges, Clifford is a relentlessly upbeat individual, excited about life. He annually visits Cardinal Caravan and has spent time in the booth with John Rooney and Mike Shannon. Clifford is larger than life and one of a kind.
My grandma and I are huge Cardinal fans. When I told her the Cardinals were doing Cardboard fans she was so excited to do this. Every year our family has ladies night out at the ballpark so she can enjoy a game at Busch Stadium. She is an avid fan, never misses a game and gets so mad when they are playing badly or lose the game. I moved to North Carolina last November so I told her to keep my cardboard so that next season I will be able to watch every get with her.
Jessica loved her Cardinals. We went to the winter warm up every year and opening day. I couldn't tell you how many games we went to every year. Oct 2015 just a few days before her 21st birthday she was diagnosed with glioblastoma grade 4. A very aggressive brain cancer. That didn't slow her down any. We went to Florida for Spring Training. She lost her battle Jan 9th 2019. She was 24. Before she passed, we talked about her funeral service and she asked to be put in a Cardinal shirt for her viewing and wanted everyone to wear their favorite team shirt. She would of been so proud, everyone wore Cardinals shirts, even the Cub fans. Her favorites were Yadi and Bader. I had to get her in the Stadium this year. That is were she belongs. As my son said, Jessie is finally a season ticket holder in 2020.
The cutouts I (with the inclusion of my siblings) submitted are my parents, Kerry and Peggy Spellazza. As season ticket holders since 2010, my parents favorite dates were to Busch to sit out in LP2 and cheer on their team. Because we lost my father to cancer back in January of this year, I thought this would be a special way to have Mom and Dad in the stands together one last time.
My wife and myself have been together nearly 20 years but never actually got married. Both being huge Cardinal fans, we long ago decide that someday we would hope to get married at Busch Stadium. Having grown up in the St. Louis Metro area, we knew it would be something special. Fast forward to September 25th. 2019, we were wed at home plate with friends and family in attendance. My full Loudmouth wedding suit had been purchased the year before as we spent about a year preparing. We took a mini honeymoon to go see our Cards for spring training down in Jupiter. As the COVID situation started to develop we were lucky to get to see some of the last spring training games played on the final weekend before it was all shut down. Once I saw "flat fans" going in at some places, I hoped we would do the same. As soon as I found out that we were doing it in St. Louis I ordered ours as soon as possible.
Dave Pierce-Carthage, MO. Passed in March 2020 at 82. He was an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan and never missed a game whether it was radio or televised. In fact, watching games with him brought the whole family together over the years and it has become a deeply cherished family tradition. Grandpa has left behind several spiral bound notebooks of every game he watched where he would jot down the score, stats along with other details. For example, I went to a game at Wrigley and came home to talk about it with him and he flipped back several pages in his very full Cardinals notebook and told me how the they played that night and how cold it was! Talk about a fan!
It has been so disappointing not working at Busch Stadium this year in my usher job, that I jumped at the chance to "be there" via a cardboard cutout. A friend, who was working a special event at the stadium, sent me a picture of my cutout in section 145 behind the dugout. I was shocked to see who was seated to my right - a fellow volunteer at Anderson Hospital in Maryville, IL, Tom Ohren! Tom passed away in October of 2019 and sat behind the dugout on his last visit to Busch Stadium on his 75th birthday - that is when his picture was taken. His wife told me that Tom would have loved sitting behind the dugout once again!
My niece, Lisa Burg Taylor, purchased this as a memorial for my husband, Roger Nelson, who passed away on 8/18/2020 after a 2-1/2 year battle with cancer. We were together since 1982 and went on the first ever Cardinals Cruise. On our first date he told me, "as the Cardinals do in the season, so goes my mood for the year." He was right! The picture on the CardBOARD was from the 2011 World Series, a bucket list item checked off! I was extremely glad that as he laid here in Hospice at home, one of the last games he saw was the Cardinals beating the Cubs in a double header! Thanks for the opportunity to share.
Rick Remley's cardboard cutout was in place just in time so he could root them on while he received a kidney transplant on 9/8 in Madison, Wisconsin. One of his key concerns while recovering was making sure he could listen to the Cardinals. They weren't playing in Milwaukee, so not on TV while he recovered in the hospital, but we were able to get the games streamed through the SiriusXM app. He's now back home in East Moline, IL, doing great, and watching his beloved Cardinals in the playoffs! We all hope he's able to recreate his Cardboard Cutout picture taken during Game 6 - rally hat and the birds on the bat sweatshirt! And shouting from the rooftop "This is what baseball is all about!"
Our Cardboard Cut Out is of our new addition to the family: Our 5 year old adopted greyhound Piper. She was adopted in May when our kids had come home - one to work and the other having just graduated from college. Our daughter decided we needed an addition to the family and with no travel plans and a 14.5 year old lab, the timing was right. She's a bit quirky: she likes to sing/howl which is rather unusual for a greyhound, she is fearful of wood floors but is perhaps the most animated dog I've ever been around. The picture, also taken by our daughter, won a prize at her company. The Cardinal hat was added later.