Celebrating Dick Au

It’s time. Time to honour and remember our friend and NP community member, Dick Au. Here’s a piece written by his daughter, Raeann Au.

Despite not being a morning person, my dad, Dick Au, would regularly wake up at 5am, picking up family and friends, to participate in November Project workouts. He started in April 2015 and was a fairly regular participant until in-person workouts were stopped due to COVID-19. Sadly, as a result of his death on June 19, 2021, his last NP workout was in March 2020.

Once Dad started regularly attending NP, it became a big part of his life. He loved to talk about NP with family, friends, colleagues, and strangers alike – whoever would listen. He recruited friends from work, church, and the neighborhood to join him. Oftentimes, Dad would persuade them by offering to pick them up (with a coffee) and inviting them to breakfast afterwards. He would bring priests, friends from Australia, and even his children’s friends (regardless of whether or not his kids were coming). His most consistent NP partner was his older brother Sam, and the two of them would often follow up a NP workout with breakfast and then another workout and/or hot tub soak at a city rec centre before going to work.

When I was in grade 11, I too became a regular attendee as a way to get a ride to school for my early morning math classes. No matter how sleepy or grouchy I was, Dad was always willing to wake me up, make me a hot chocolate, and let me nap in the car on the drive to wherever the work out would be that day. My Dad’s tradition of getting breakfast at Commodore on Mondays and Wednesdays or at the Westmount McDonalds on Friday for the OMC (Old Man Coffee), went a long way towards bribing me (and I assume others) to come – especially in the winter!

Dad made a point of joining other NP cities when on vacation or he would create his own unofficial one so that he wouldn’t miss out. He collected tags from New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, Calgary, and Ottawa. The Wednesday morning workouts at Commonwealth in the summer inspired Dad to come up with the idea of the “Beer Bowl,” where he would go to a football game and spend the whole time walking the stairs of the stadium carrying a beer so he could pretend to just be heading to his seat. Dad was so proud of his collection of buffs and his -30 badge.

With his big, goofy smile, fluffy dog, and infamous toe-shoes, Dad was an easily recognized regular. From 2015 onwards, NP was a big part of Dad’s life.

As such, my family is very grateful that this Friday, August 6 the workout will also be a celebration of my Dad’s life and his love for NP. We are very grateful for Lazina and Rob’s help and eagerness to arrange this event. We encourage everyone to show up a little bit early and don’t forget to bring an extra t-shirt as Roy has designed a special tag dedicated to my Dad.

Raeann Au

**Thanks Steven for capturing us all over the years. What wonderful photos of Dick! Thanks for the memories.**

Announcements

• Friday at 6am– we’ll see you at Walterdale Hill
• As Raeann shared, bring a shirt. We’ve got a special tag to help us celebrate and honour our friend.
• If you’re new to NP Canada or haven’t done so as yet, please sign the global waiver- here
• If you’re coming to a workout, sign in here BEFORE you show up. In the event we need to contact you, we know who was at each workout.

Lazina + Rob

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