Darci Palmquist and Rassamee Bryan
The Presidio, San Francisco, CA
June 21, 2002

My name is Darci Palmquist, and I knew Danielle in Americorps. If you heard any Americorps stories from Danielle , you know we had some crazy experiences, traveling to a new location every two months to do community projects. One time we were called to do American Red Cross Disaster Relief because there was a flood in the Sacramento area. So they bought us plane tickets on Southwest Airlines. If you've ever flown on Southwest Airlines, you know they're kind of kooky. The flight attendants will sometimes sing songs. Well, we were barely sitting down and Rassamee asks Danielle to get up and sing "Happy Birthday" to one of our corps members. So Danielle starts flirting with the stewardess and, eventually, she's up there singing "Happy Birthday" over the microphone. After that we started making requests. We heard "Faith" by George Michael. We heard "I Will Survive". She did her whole routine.

My name is Rassamee Bryan, and the story I want to tell is also about Danielle during Americorps. Although we were only in San Diego for about three months, Danielle decided she had to join the rugby team, the San Diego Surfers. She kept begging us to go to her games, so we finally made a plan to go. We pile into the car and get there a little late, and we're looking around for Danielle. She's not on the "pitch". Then we notice someone lying on the ground with a towel over her head. I say, "I think that's Danielle," but I don't want to poke this person. Then our friend Kat walks right up to her and says, "Danielle, what's going on?" Danielle is in a lot of pain because she has broken a rib, but she's not focusing on that. She's pissed off because we've missed her first try, and she starts yelling at us, "Where have you been?"

We try to get her into the car to take her to the hospital, and we're really concerned. But we have all these bicycles and all these people with us. So Danielle, who is in a lot if pain, starts delegating "Okay, you take the bikes that way. You go with this person. I'm going to drive in the car with that person." She was so hilarious. She was trying to take care of everybody. I was 18 at the time. And she was a mentor to me. It was really nice to have Danielle there looking out for me.

home * guest book * contribute * updates * in her own words * in memory * album * medical links