Hello,
I’d like to submit my fiancé Ryan Morgan to be considered for this contest.
Ryan is an Emergency Room Clinical Pharmacist at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. We first met in New York City, where I grew up, and then moved to Los Angeles 3 years ago. To officially welcome us to the west coast my dad bought us surf lessons. Ryan fell in love with surfing immediately. I would say he’s borderline obsessed actually. His job is incredibly stressful – surfing gives him an outlet and has become the one thing that reliably calms him down. He surfs as much as he possibly can with his busy schedule, checks the surf cam religiously, and practically arranges his life around the swell/wind/tide forecasts. Keep in mind this is a guy who just started surfing 3 years ago, teaching himself the sport using beginner equipment. I can honestly say it has changed his life.
At the end of March when the COVID-19 outbreak was really getting bad in New York City and Governor Cuomo made a plea for healthcare workers to volunteer, Ryan signed himself up immediately. The Emergency Room at UCLA had been pretty slow due to the success of our social distancing and he felt his skills and expertise would be better used at the epicenter of the pandemic. Since we lived in NYC and my family and many of our friends still live there, he felt an especially strong sense of obligation.
Within a week he had matched with one of the three COVID-designated hospitals in NYC. He dropped his obligations here in LA, made the difficult decision to leave his family in LA, and flew out to volunteer in one of their COVID Intensive Care Units. He used his vacation time to be able to leave his current job and worked 14 days straight helping critically ill patients at an underfunded and understaffed hospital in Brooklyn. His experience was intense and he endured some things that no healthcare worker should ever have to. Once he returned to LA, he immediately went back to work in the ER caring for COVID patients still coming to the hospital. He is on his 20th day straight of work (without a single day off). And because the beaches in LA have been closed, he hasn’t had his favorite pastime to help him destress.
Ryan is a true hero in my book and nothing would make him happier than to have a new board (and some serious swell) for when the beaches reopen.
Thank you for considering this application and for setting up this amazing contest!
-Emma
