BOZEMAN - It’s a book about teamwork and it’s a great reminder of how important we all are to each other.
“Like teamwork, companionship, empathy for one another,” said Ben Nash. “Really just combined to make such a great group of friends.”
And if ever there was a time a young man needed family and friends.
“So three years ago, going on four years, 2017, in the summer, I lost my hand to a meat grinder,” said Ridley Brandmayr.
It was days and days in a children’s hospital. Surgeries. Recovery.
“A lot of it was one day at a time,” said Ridley.
A group of six friends. “Ben, Jack, Will, Parker,” said Ridley. Add in Ben and Ridley - and a book about them. “SQRL Team Six” helped Ridley keep his head and heart in the long game.
“I think it’s a great way of showing how no matter what each of us is going through, there’s always some support there,” said Ridley. “And we don’t necessarily have to say that to each other. We always find a way to support and communicate, mostly through sports.”
The boys are there for each other and their dads knew that others could be helped by the positive message of how important another kind of team is - a group of buds. That makes everything that happens, good or challenging, easier to handle.
“The main value that I hope that people take from the book is that you’re stronger together than just by yourself,” said Steve Nash, Ben’s father. “It really takes a team to do good things.”
“I think the thing that I’m most proud of in that, was having Steve help me,” said Brent Brandmayr, who illustrated the book. “ I think we got to a point and have delivered. A book here, where you can feel that emotion, the gratitude, the fear. All of these different things that come with not being part of a team and then being part of a team.”
SQRL Team Six is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble right now. You can get it from our local bookstores, they will order it for you.
The author and illustrator will be at the Bozeman Christmas Stroll this year and proceeds from that night will go to Eagle Mount and to the Challenged Athletes Foundation.
