Major news from Velma & Racci about In Apolo's Name! This message is directly from them.

Seattle Ronald McDonald House Charities has met the Kresge Challenge!

With help from Apolo fans, the RMHC raised $1.7 million before the Nov. 30, deadline. From that they were awarded an additional $750,000 to help them meet construction costs.

Everyone who participated, either via donations or helping to spread the word, should feel great about being a part of this effort.

Now, hey, I know what you are thinking. So, stop! It’s not over. The RMHC still needs our funds to help with operational costs. And . . . We now have a whole extra month to continue raising funds in Apolo’s name! Yep. We have until Dec. 31, to raise approximately $5,000 to reach our goal for Apolo’s room.

So, tell me, does Apolo have 5,000 fans that would each be willing to send $1 to the RMHC? Does he have 2,500 fans willing to send in $2? 1,000 fans to send in $5? 500 fans to send in $10?

We can do this. I know it.

All we have to do is get our second wind. It is coming.

In fact, it is likely coming this weekend. The third piece of our MAJOR NEWS will appear on the IAN site this Sunday night. www.geocities.com/inapolosname. Yep. There’s more. So, stop by and visit! (Such teases we are!)

Until then, we want to say, “thank you.” That is from fans to fans. Your enthusiasm and selflessness is going to go a long way to help many, many people . . . as well as giving Apolo the coolest gift ever.

An eclectic selection to start off your weekend...

From Yano -- check out your favorite short track team circa 2001

From Linda, not sure who AAO's friend is

at NYC book signing

This one too from Yano, via the October issue of Playboy. Take it away, OZers...
P.S. Rest assured she only reads that magazine for the pictures! ;)

at Playboy Mansion fete for ESPY nominees

Announcing Speed Reading, a new speedskating magazine:

Speed Reading 'Zine Is Now Selling Subscriptions!

Hello! A quick, but important announcement. Speed Reading (a printed magazine dedicated exclusively to Long and Short Track ice speed skating) is now selling subscriptions! Please visit our website at: http://speedreadingzine.tripod.com. In our first issue, we will be having a contest . . . and the prize will be something Apolo related!!! What exactly, you ask? Well, now. You don't expect us to give you ALL the good info right away do you? ;o) The premier issue of the 'zine will be out in about 2 months (January 2003) and you can pay for your subscription now, to beat the crowds. And to all of you who have sent kind words and offered your writing and photography skills . . . thank you so much! Your support, input and generosity are SO appreciated! See you all soon.
Lori J. Bayne and Stephanie L. Lambert

Sarah, Apolo, Brooke in Atlanta

This is the Atlanta account from Brooke and Sarah:

Well, our morning didn't start out with high expectations of seeing Apolo since we just found out it was going to be closed to the public, but we knew we had to try anyways, we figured just catching a glimpse would be cool too!! We battled our way through the vicious wind and finally arrived at the GWCC. Once inside, we just followed the signs and it led us straight to the exhibit hall, from there we got pretty lucky and got in! We immediately spotted the Visa booth and tried to look professional as we walked through to it lol! When we reached the booth, fortunately there was a very short line, so we jumped in and waited our turn. The way they had it set up was, you walked up, greeted him (whats up, how are you etc.) they'd snap a polaroid and then he autographed information sheets they had about him. Getting to stand up there with him was incredible, he broke the ice and talked to us first, and then he put his arm around us to take the picture (no words, lol) so we decided we had to do it again lol. It took a while to get the guts back up so while we waited, we stood to the side and snapped away, while we were taking pics we noticed a big poster of him so we decided to take a picture in front of it, and as we were doing so the man that had designed the booth snuck up and started taking our pictures also! He wanted a picture of one of us taking a picture of our friend in front of it lol, so we happily obliged! A few minutes later when there was nobody else in the line we asked the photographer if we could hop up there again and he was like absolutely, go on! When we walked back up Apolo smiled and said 'hello again!' lol, they took individual pictures of us, and we figured while we were up there we may as well ask for a pic of the three of us! The photographer was really nice and asked us to give him our camera to take a picture with, and then he took a polaroid of us for both of us! At this point there were only a few minutes left in the session, so we wandered around a bit, finished up our roll of film of candid pics of Apolo, and decided we should go on so we worked our way back out of the building and headed home!! We tried to find any fellow OZers around there, but we couldn't. We sent in a few pictures and we have more, maybe we'll try to send in some more later!

Introducing the official

OHNO ZONE FAQ

brought to a computer near you by your friendly, local
OZ Tech Support Team

With a special illustrated section on how to save video clips! A guide to commonly-used OZ acronyms! Tips for spiffing up your plain-jane comments! And all kinds of troubleshooting tricks!

Did we leave anything out? Let us know!

April took these screen grabs from NYC mini-movie:

And the winner is... Apolo

"The winner of our 25 most beautiful poll is a Seattle man who lit the world on fire and melted hearts without ever leaving the ice."

Update: Apolo won the poll with a commanding 37% of the vote! Final tally.

Watch brief video clip (footage isn't new)


courtesy king5.com

See more at KING5.com. (Free registration may be required.)

Here's a photo from M-C, of Apolo taking her letter at Can Ams.

Update on Atlanta: Not good news, I'm afraid. Apolo will appear, as I suspected, at the BAI Retail Delivery Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center. His appearances are from 11-1 and 3-5 on Wed. 11/6. This is a banking industry trade show and not open to the public. :(

More of Terry's Farm Fresh appearance photos...

Here are Rosa's Can Am photos & report!

Here is Rosa's Can Am report

Hey y'all. I had the best time of my life at the CanAms. Spending almost 10 hours watching short track, Apolo, and the other skaters was great. I just could not keep my eyes off him, it was hard paying attention to the other races. I got there extremely early, around 8am, considering Montreal is just one hour away from where I live in the US. I was fairly disappointed that he didn't come to the Worlds last year but this def. makes up for it. Short-track speedskaters are the yummiest athletes ever. Gosh there were so many hot guys there! Guys in skinsuits, speed on ice, gravity defying sharp turns -- what more can a girl ask for. I went w/a friend and we were in total awe when we spotted Apolo. He was running around the rink doing warm-ups and stretching, it was a wonderful sight. We had great seats, right where the skaters' seating area was. So I call out Apolo's name but he's looking around in confusion thinking it was another skater who was calling him. I'm like, "Up here Apolo!" He looks up at me and of course I'm extremely peppy and excited about this. So I ask in a sweet, innocent voice, "Apolo, can we have your autograph?" and what does he say? "sure!" Of course some skaters nearby Apolo yell out, "geez, everyone wants your autograph" and "Yeah, he wants one too". Apolo smiles in embarrasment. So I accidently chucked sharpie and paper at him, but at least he was kind enough to ask for my name. Remember, we were up in the stands and he was below near the rink. Yes girls, I was the one that made Apolo jump up and down! We were up kinda high so it took him several jumps to reach us. He's so short compared to Shani though cuz Shani had no problem giving us back our autographs. It's so cute when they run together. Anyways, as Apolo walks away I asked him, "did you see our sign?" He smiles and says, "yeah, i like that, thank you." We had made USA, Go Canada, and "Ohno! Here Comes Apolo!" signs. Of course we were the only ones w/signs and two little flags ducktaped to the railing. As for the skaters that were teasing Apolo, well as my friend and I left for a walk, they came up and said, "Hey! Do you want our autographs too?" lol. I just couldn't believe that I talked to Apolo. I pretty much live in the countryside and I never thought that I would ever be able to meet Apolo, but my dream came true. I really wanted to have my pic taken w/him but unlike many of the skaters, he didn't come up the arena to warm up. The first person I saw in the hall was Shani but I chickened out and didn't ask for an autograph, I did the same thing during Worlds. Luckily, I was able to get his autograph later in the day along w/J.P. who was lying down in the halls. He is such a cutie. I always thought that he was the shy one, but heck no. Him and his teamates were wild cheering for Chad Richards, a US speedskater. Shani and Apolo had really good races but J.P. fell in both his heats. My French is ok so I was able to pick up some of the announcements but not all of it so i wasn't aware that they were gonna end early. I love short track but meeting and seeing everyone was awsome. There weren't a lot of people there which was kind of an upside cuz i was able to connect w/the skaters more. They were much more relaxed and more of them were able to walk around unlike Worlds. But there's much more exitement when you're in a crowd of people, makes cheering more fun. I felt kinda stupid being the only one cheering for Apolo and the guys but hey, anything to support the US. I dunno what the chances of him coming back to Montreal, but heck, I'll be willing to drive 6 hrs to go see him in Chicoutimi. We'll see, but I'm def. determined to meet him again. Hope you enjoyed my extremely long story.