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Help a CE Veteran Combat Wife’s Disability
Visit www.Team-Angela.org to help Chris Bauer and his family.
That network can come in handy if you ever need a little help, and such is the case for Chris Bauer, former Tweeter trainer and spokesman and current director of marketing for ZeeVee.
Chris’ wife Angela was diagnosed with bone cancer three and a half years ago, and has since had a leg and part of her hip amputated. To give her a safe and accessible place to live, they’re selling their existing house and building a handicap-accessible home near Angela’s sister’s family, who’ll provide support for Angela, Chris and the two of their six kids still living at home.
Here’s where the network comes into play: Chris and Angela’s friends have launched a Web site designed to help defray some of the substantial expense of building this special home. Those who’d like to learn more, or who want to donate, can do so at www.Team-Angela.org.
Directly from Chris …
After just 22 years at the company I became the spokesman for Tweeter Home Entertainment; not quite an overnight success, but exciting nonetheless.
That same month my wife Angela, mother of our six kids, was diagnosed with bone cancer. Much more exciting.
I remember seeing her come into the house after what I thought was a routine visit to the orthopedist to check on a sore right leg. She was on crutches, and as she came through the door she said, “They say I have a tumor in my thigh. It could be benign, or it could be cancer.”
If you’ve never had that experience, it’s impossible to imagine how it hollows you out, right on the spot.
That was three and a half years ago and I’m still in the CE business, though I left Tweeter long before its terrible ending.
My wife has had surgery to remove a tumor in her thighbone, another in her lung, and just this past June she had her right leg and part of her hip amputated.
That last procedure and the recovery are the stuff of nightmares. It’s been a long three and a half years.
Throughout, Angela’s focus has remained on our kids, especially our three youngest, as she’s worked relentlessly to help them become more responsible, stronger and more independent. She’s like an injured lioness carrying her cubs to safety one by one before tending to her own terrible wounds. It’s simply astonishing.
Our friends in the CE biz have provided amazing support during this brutal run. Recently a couple of them, plus some more of our old friends, began raising funds to help us with the next big adventure in our lives: building a safe and accessible house to accommodate my wife’s new physical challenge.
You can learn about it at www.Team-Angela.org.
Angela and I want to thank them, and the editors of CE Pro, for their incredible generosity toward us. Though business is tough in the CE industry right now, Angela and I are deeply grateful to still be a part of this community.
Chris Bauer
Many, many CE folks know Chris. As a trainer at Tweeter he educated (and entertained) thousands of employees — many of whom still work in the industry. He eventually became the voice and face of Tweeter, appearing in radio and TV ads. Even if you don’t know him, you’ve likely heard or seen him.
At ZeeVee, he continues to reach out to the industry building brand awareness for the company.
I met Chris while working in Tweeter’s marketing department about 10 years ago.
How do you know Chris? Let us know in the comments section below.
Forward this to people who know Chris. And please donate what you can at www.Team-Angela.org.
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8 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Tom,
Thanks for bringing Chris and Angela’s story to a wider audience. I worked with Chris for nearly 10 years at Tweeter, and I’m sure that everyone in the CE business who has ever met Chris will want to help out by visiting the Team-Angela.org website.
I have been privledged to call Chris a friend for more than 12 years, having worked with him at tweeter for well over 6 of those years. Chris has had a profound impact on my outlook on; clients, co-workers, sales as a whole, and people in general. As Andy said, I’m sure that anyone in our tight knit little industry family who has met Chris, will remember sharing a laugh with him. It’s hard not to be inspired by a spirit so up-lifting as Chris’. Although I’d like to take this opportunity to wish Angela (& of course Chris & the young Bauers as well) All the Best; I for one am going straight to Team-Angela.org from here to help. As I’m certain will many of my brothers and sisters of this belovedly disfunctional family we call CE.
Thank you CE Pro for delivering a Truly important and honorable message to the family.
Thanks for the article Tom…Chris and Angela are some of the finest people you will ever meet in life. I know that the Tweeter family will rally their support for the Bauer family - - and I am hoping that others in the industry will do so as well!
Chris Bauer is one remarkable guy - very funny, warm hearted and even through this nightmare he always greets you with a smile. So often we are asked to support organizations that don’t reach us personally. Here is an opportunity to help someone who has touched so many of our lives. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Chris has trained a whole lot of the best AV folks out there. So please get the word out and let’s see if as a community, we can make a difference some great people.
Amazing folks, those Bauers! It is an honor and a pleasure to be able to help them at this time. No one has more spirit and spunk than Angela. Together they are beating this thing. The new house will be fantastic!
It is heartwarming to see an industry as vast and competetive as ours rally to support such fine people in a time of need. Angela and Chris are truly special and have been inspirations in the lives of countless others over the years, mine included.
I feel honored to know them and to consider them friends, and I urge anyone who can to go to the Team Angela site and help out! Of course, if you know the Bauers you won’t need to be convinced….!
i have known Chris since i was about 12 years old he has been one of the nicest, funniest, and most dedicated person i have met in my life. Chris if there is anything i can provide from Cozy Closets to help make it a little easier i woyld love to be able to help Angela and your family out. Let me know.
Chris,
Our thoughts are with you. Thank you Tom for this article. I just joined the Care Pages site and it looks like a wonderful thing.
http://www.carepages.com/carepages/TeamAngela
David