Hi Everyone,

It’s been awhile so I wanted to stop in and say hi from the Vancouver Customer Support office. I'm also here to share a story about Darrin, a Supervisor on the graveyard shift that works for eBay here in Vancouver. He has an inspiring story about facing obstacles and overcoming them - and how he's using eBay to do so.

Last September, Darrin was diagnosed with Diabetes, and consequently underwent surgery due to complications of the disease. Although he will make a strong recovery, the healing process has been very slow. He misses the days of keeping busy helping out the eBay Community from his job in Vancouver. (That’s Darrin pictured here with his wife Lindsay and daughter Parker.)
 
Confined to his bed, he told me how he was going stir-crazy from not being able to work or communicate with friends other than by phone. He decided to purchase a laptop, and got back to two of his favourite things – music and eBay. Soon after, he resurrected his music website www.rocksquad.net. On Rocksquad, he interviews mainstream multiplatinum artists from the Black Label Society, to Steve Vai's Favored Nations artists, to the Dropkick Murphys. The cool part of the site – aside from the fact that Darrin does everything from the artwork, the interviews and CD reviews – is the Rock Auction. Over the coming weeks, Darrin will be auctioning off a number of items for charity. The auction items have been donated by various musicians, artists and instrument companies, in support of the Diabetes Association of Canada .

All of Darrin’s auctions will be run on eBay and payable by PayPal (unfortunately eBay Giving Works isn't available in Canada to simplify the process). Some auction items coming up are a “Coffin Case” guitar case signed by the Misfits, autographed photos of 2007 Grammy nominee Tommy Emmanuel, and tons of signed DVDs and CDs. 

He's also passing the time by pursuing another life long passion – taking guitar lessons. In order to do this, he gets his lessons via Skype Video from Dave Weiner, Favored Nations recording artist and 8-year member of the Steve Vai band! But while Darrin is making the most of his time as he recovers at home, he says he cannot wait to get back to work, and have everything back to normal. Rock on, Darrin!

If you know of an inspirational story such as Darrin's and would like to see it featured in the Chatter, send us a note at chatterblog@ebay.com.