{"id":1244087,"date":"2018-05-03T13:14:36","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T17:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/?p=1244087"},"modified":"2018-05-03T13:14:36","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T17:14:36","slug":"in-the-wake-of-an-unexpected-death-downtown-community-gathers-to-honor-one-of-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/2018\/05\/03\/in-the-wake-of-an-unexpected-death-downtown-community-gathers-to-honor-one-of-their-own\/","title":{"rendered":"In the wake of an unexpected death, downtown community gathers to honor one of their own"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ago0PTRWQBo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, it seemed as if everyone in Frederick knew Colleen Morin, a bartender and de facto manager at Firestone\u2019s Culinary Tavern. Together with her husband, Casey \u2014 a fellow bartender at Guido\u2019s Speakeasy \u2014 she was often described as the heart and soul of downtown by friends and customers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was like the perfect balance,\u201d said Ben Jardeleza, a longtime friend of Casey\u2019s who used to work with him at Firestone\u2019s. \u201cColleen was always so proper and super welcoming, and Casey was more the goofball of the situation. You could go visit them at either end of the street, any day of the week, and both of them would be totally engaged with you. You could tell they really cared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Colleen died in January of complications related to the flu, the news rocked the community. Firestone\u2019s and Guido\u2019s closed to give staff and friends time to mourn. Dozens of customers left bouquets in front of both establishments. When Jardeleza heard the news, his mind immediately went to Casey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to do something for him to show I love him \u2014 we all do \u2014 and we\u2019ll do anything for him,\u201d Jardeleza said. \u201cBecause Colleen was Casey\u2019s whole world. It was obvious how in love they were.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That communal love for Casey and Colleen set the stage for the Frederick Friends Fest, ready to kick off Saturday at the Frederick Eagles Club on East Patrick Street. Ten local bands will perform for 10 hours with a $10 cover, Jardeleza said. His own band, Crooked Hills, is scheduled to perform that day as well.<\/p>\n<p>The event will be a tribute to Colleen and a benefit for Casey, he added. The bands will be performing for free, so all the proceeds will go to Casey to help defray costs since the death or donate to one of Colleen\u2019s favorite charities.<\/p>\n<p>That the benefit came together at all is testament to the couple\u2019s impact on downtown Frederick. Ricole Barnes, a local musician headlining the event with his band, daMOOD, said he immediately agreed to help when he learned the event was to honor Colleen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was nothing less than amazing,\u201d Barnes said of his friend. The two met more than seven years ago when Colleen first served him at Firestone\u2019s. Barnes quickly became a regular customer.<\/p>\n<p>One of the best things about Colleen, he said, was her sense of humor. After the first time she served him, Barnes realized he had forgotten her name, and made it a game to try to remember without outright asking or looking at his receipt. For the first year, he said, he and his cousin would visit Firestone\u2019s regularly and try to guess without giving themselves away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike, was it Cindy? Was it Carmen?\u201d Barnes said. \u201cIt was just fun to try to figure that out. And eventually we told her and she thought it was really funny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AbWY3ax7kZ0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After Colleen\u2019s death, Barnes said it took him months to return to Firestone\u2019s. It helped to know that he was one of many friends and customers heartbroken by the news. In the days after the loss, Barnes attended a benefit auction at Cafe Nola and a community gathering for Colleen at The Blue Side. He was struck, he said, by the hundreds of people who came to both events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was nice to know that the feeling was mutual,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n<p>The benefit on Saturday, he added, will be another way to show how much Colleen meant to people downtown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m still in disbelief, but this was a great way for me to have closure and say thank you for all she\u2019s done,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n<p>Even people who never knew the couple personally wanted to help with the benefit. Treena Bell, a bartender and treasurer for the Frederick Eagles Club, said the group decided to pitch in as soon as Jardeleza approached them with the idea.<\/p>\n<p>As a fellow bartender, Colleen\u2019s story resonated with Bell. The Eagles gave Jardeleza a 70 percent discount on the club\u2019s ballroom, and Bell is donating six hours of labor along with another bartender.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5cNYOYEfycQ?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe whole motto of the Eagles is people helping people,\u201d she said. \u201cShe\u2019s still part of the community. As a bartender, she was part of my community. So, we just wanted to help them out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The outpouring of love and support is still somewhat surreal to Casey, who found himself sharing his grief with hundreds of other people in the weeks after his wife\u2019s death. The two married on April 2, 2011, after meeting several years earlier, at a Super Bowl party (somewhat ironic, Casey said, given the couple\u2019s mutual apathy toward sports).<\/p>\n<p>For Casey, meeting Colleen was love at first sight. Like many others, he was drawn to her for the traits that came to define her \u2014 her warmth, her sense of humor, her genuine interest in people and their lives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe could make you feel like you were the only one in the room,\u201d Casey said. \u201cShe was definitely a bright light that people looked forward to, who kind of reverberated with everyone who knew her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Frederick Friends Fest, he added, is the type of event Colleen would love \u2014 a reason for the community to gather together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many people knew Colleen, and I thought it was a good way to bring people together,\u201d Casey said. \u201cShe was an incredible person, obviously. And I know she would be really touched.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cMMWx2ithNU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes, it seemed as if everyone in Frederick knew Colleen Morin, a bartender and de facto manager at Firestone\u2019s Culinary Tavern. Together with her husband, Casey \u2014 a fellow bartender&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1244088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1244087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-festivals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1244087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1244088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1244087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1244087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1244087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}