Love marches on

Shannon and Eric Hanson, Cedar Rapids
Shannon, 38, Director of Marketing and Member Development @ YMCA of Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Area
Eric, 35, Communications Director @ Iowa City Area Development

Shannon and Eric Hanson at Volume

On their first date Eric and Shannon Hanson spent hours trying to find something they disagreed on and came up with nothing.

Sixteen years later, “that’s not an issue,” says Shannon, erupting into one of her signature full-body laughs.

True. That blush of first love may have faded. But they really do have a lot in common.

Like laughter. And friendship. Neither of which should be dismissed lightly, they say.

“We’re both big believers in that you’ve got to be best friends before you get married,” says Eric.

That’s not their only secret. Whoever cooks, the other cleans. Eric does the laundry because Shannon doesn’t fold shirts to his liking. And they hire a housekeeper.

“There are ways to keep marriages going,” says Shannon, again laughing. “For us it’s Paula (the housekeeper) and him doing the laundry.”

It doesn’t hurt that they both like football either.

Fitting since it was the game, in a roundabout kind of way, that brought them together.

Eric and Shannon both marched in the University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band. She played the clarinet. He the saxophone.

When they first met, she didn’t know his name. Just “the little guy who marched next to me.”

He was pretty sure her name was Shannon. Or maybe Sharon.

But he was smitten. So when she dropped a few loaded hints aimed at her then boyfriend, Eric took the bait and left a dozen roses on her seat during a home game.

An entire year later (he’s a fast mover), he asked for her number.

“She literally said ‘My phone number is in the book,’ and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll never call you then,’ ” says Eric.

“But I really meant, my phone number is in the book, call me,” says Shannon.

Luckily they ran into each other later that fall. She gave him a hard time for not calling her and “somehow we went from that to dating,” he says. “Then it literally just snowballed.”

They were engaged three years later and on April 12, 1996, they were married.

“We had a teeny tiny wedding and a huge blowout reception,” says Shannon.

They lived in Cedar Rapids for seven years in their 20s, but it took leaving and returning again a few years ago before they took advantage of all the city has to offer.

These days they’re definitely making up for lost time. Eric is the incoming president of Access Iowa, Cedar Rapids’ young professional’s organization. And Shannon is on the board as a social co-chair.

“I wish we would have been this engaged then,” says Eric.

WHAT THEY CAN DO FOR YOU: Both are pretty darn passionate about Cedar Rapids and the non-profit organizations they work for. Want to know more. Just say so.

DID YOU KNOW: The women of Shannon’s sorority Alpha Xi Delta had an ongoing competition to see who would receive the most roses each year. So Eric had 75 roses delivered to Shannon during her senior year. They’re pretty sure the record still holds.