The Harry Potter Alliance

By Arletta Gustafson

August 11, 2009

Happy Birthday, Andrew Slack!

Today is Andrew’s birthday. Normally, one person write a blog honoring the birthday boy or girl. We had a hard time choosing an author for Andrew’s birthday. After all, it’s a BIG birthday. Andrew turns 30 today!! So, since we couldn’t make a decision, a whole bunch of us decided to wish Andrew well on this day. So here goes:

Andrew the awesome,
Happy Birthday! You have made not just a difference within the world but also within me by reminding me how we are part of a big community and that we are all friends in this big HP family. Also how you were so welcoming and funny at my first staff meeting and made me feel like I was an old friend of yours even though we had never met. Another amazing thing about you is when you remind us to step back from the HPA and take a breather. Now these small things you do help me battle my personal dementors and Draco Malfoys at school. You have given me the thing I look forward to when I get up, the HPA. So thank you Andrew. May your birthday be magical
Allison

Andrew Slack, Superstar, Do you think you’re what they say you are?
Leader of the HPA, a mensch of a guy who’s birthday is today!

Dear Andrew- not only are you a wonderful friend, but you are a spectacularly talented individual.
May this year bring you everything you need to keep that creative flame burning so brightly.
And don’t forget to get your wizard on.
Acacia

Andrew Slack…
Andrew Slack….
Well, my first encounter with anything HPA related was about a year and a half ago when I heard it mentioned on Pottercast and I didn’t really think much of it. Then I started following the HPA blog and something about Andrew’s voice really stuck with me. He’s like the host of a party, always there to pump up the excitement or passion that we all have towards any given cause. He might be a failed actor and a bleeding heart liberal but only in the BEST SENSE of the terms. But my Andrew “story” is much less a story and more a complete nerdy fangirl moment which I should keep to myself. However, Birthdays are for gushing and sharing!

Let me first say that the HPA is probably why I care about the world. I was always a compassionate person but I was really lazy about it, I wasn’t interested in going out and doing anything to support my ideals or desire for change. Then I heard about the HPA and started learning about Breaking Out of the Muggle Mindset and Magical Acts of Kindness and something CLICKED (like CLICK CLICK CLICKED) and all of a sudden I was participating in my STAND chapter and volunteering all the time and doing relay for life and giving blood every time I could and it just all took off… and in the back of my mind I always knew it was the HPA and Andrew for lighting a fire under my bottom.

So fast forward to my total fangirl moment, I’m watching the twitter during WWDD and trying to keep up with it and its going and dear god GOING and randomly I get this call from a number I don’t know and I hear this voice and it’s like “HI, this is Andrew.” And I drop the phone. Like super squee ANDREW SLACK is calling me, personally, not like a staff call or anything but like calling me. So then I put on my cool voice and I’m all “Hi, Andrew” and we talk about the twitter and how its going and how I’m keeping track and I’m on CLOUD NINE. I quickly texted one of my best friends “just got off the phone with Andrew Slack.” Then he calls again… and again… and, uhm, again… and at one point I swear we’re on the phone and it sounds like he’s panting, running, can barely speak (he’s trying to catch a train or something)… finally he stops calling! But then he texts me. The thing people miss is that Andrew really is that dedicated to this, to us to what the HPA can do. He not only talks the talk but he walks the walk and that’s why on this, your Birthday, the day the world became a little more awesome because you were born, we salute you Andrew Slack! Happy Birthday, have some butterbeer for me.
Taekia

Andrew – Happy Birthday! Happy 30th birthday! (Or end of your 30th year). This past year – the actual 30th year – has been incredible. I have had so much fun getting to know you and work with you, both online and in person. There have been so many adventures! Thank you for your inspiration, trust, constant phone and question answering, words of advice, making me laugh, and more. Above all, please know that I feel incredibly privileged to know you and to get to talk with you as often as I do. You are such an incredible person with so much talent and heart and dedication and energy. I hope you have a wonderful year!
Love, Karen

Andrew Slack is anything but what his last name hints at. He is not a ‘slacker.’ In fact, he is one of the hardest working men I have ever known. Not only does he help run one of the coolest, most awesome, and phenomenal organizations on the planet, he possesses so much love in his heart for those around him.

A few weeks ago I received a phone call that a dear friend of mine was very sick and would maybe pass. When I told Andrew, the compassion that seeped out of my cell phone wrapped itself around me, and it was like he was there by my side with arms ready to encompass me in hugs. In the several days that followed, Andrew called me to check up on me, my friend, and to offer any help he could. Whether it was talking to his own doctor friend or just making me laugh at little things, I don’t think I would have handled the situation as well if he hadn’t been there to back me up. He was also the first person to know and hear me cry as I screamed over the phone that my friend was going to pull through and be okay. I’m not sure but I think he might have teared up too!

Andrew, you are not only an awesome person and leader, but a great friend. I am both lucky and happy to have met you. I hope that your birthday is everything you want it to be and so much more. Thank you so much for being in my life and enriching it as you have in the last few months. Happy Birthday you super-special-awesome guy!
Hope
Andrew,this is Arletta, (Sorry, that’s an inside joke for staff. I had to do it.)
I’m not sure if you realize how much we all look up to and respect you. You are a friend, a leader, a confidant, and a trusted advisor, to name a few. You are always there to encourage the HPA community to think outside the box. When the muggle world gets a little to mundane, you are always there for a laugh.

After having worked for so long with a nonprofit and having become a bit disillusioned, it’s so great to work with a group of people so filled with passion and the need, and the ability, to change the world. The group wouldn’t be so passionate about change if you hadn’t planted the seed of possibility in our heads. It’s an amazing thing about seeds. They are so tiny and seem completely unworthy of anything more than a thought. You can look at it and not even know the possibilities that it holds. That seed could be Devil’s Snare trying to hold out the light. It could also be something great like a Mandrake that can heal people. Or it could be a Whomping Willow that is able to bust down obstacles in its way.
Thank you, Andrew for showing us the possibilities in the world.