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| My precious husband and Dawn Green helped me set up my table |
I have poured my soul into this foundation for many reasons, for starters my BFF Sister Tami who lost her son on December 1, 2010 a tragedy that has stunned our family in such a way that mere words can not explain. I then dug in deeper for my Nephew my precious Chadman who gave the ultimate sacrifice, for I know that he would want nothing more but to know that his brothers be taken care of, this I know, I jumped in even deeper when I found myself not having much of a purpose any longer, my first born has gone to heaven and my baby girl is living her own life and doing amazing in college. I felt like if I did not find a real purpose in life that I might just slide right off that cliff. So there are many reasons I jumped in with both feet.
Chad has changed my life so much, he has made me realize that I do have a purpose I have a purpose to live my life now and do what makes my heart feel complete and this my friends made my heart feel complete. I have always been the type of person that needed to give more than I receive for it makes me who I am and this was the GREATEST feeling I have had in a very long time. Chad and Tami have made me realize that I have to help, I have to live, I have to be happy and this is making me happy. If I could leave my job tomorrow and go out in this world and just work for this foundation I would do it in a skinny minute for I was truly in my element. I HAD A PURPOSE!!!!!
It was allot of work, but if you know me then you know I make allot of things more work than they should be because I am a bit OCD.. Yes it must run in our family, if it isn't perfect and the sticky notes written over and over a million times until everything is added, if I am not giving it a 100% then I need not try because oh how does my family know that I would not be a happy camper. I maybe at times a bit overwhelming yes I know this but I have come to embrace who I am and what I stand for and it has taken me a long time to admit that, I am really good at telling everyone else but not so good at telling myself.
This journey has brought me so much love and appreciation for so many different things. For I personally over 3 weeks placed 450 flyer's on car windows, in stores, in churches, in mail boxes, I got an appreciation after Friday night that even though I really hate when I come out of a store and there is something placed on my dang windshield that those people took time out of their life, heat, rain and tired to spread their word and so did I. So I will never be angry or upset to find a flyer of information on my windshield. I have a deep appreciation for those that took time out of their busy life to attend this event if only to drop in to give a hug, I appreciate that you have to give to receive and you have to sacrifice those things you just don't feel like doing to make someone else feel special, I truly in my life will make that extra effort from here on out.
I worked many nights, printing pictures, making a show board, typing labels for my notebook (yes I have a notebook for everything), picking up ideas and table decorations for my donation table, ideas of what I could sell to earn money for this foundation, sending letters (a ton of letters), meeting with people so eager to help, doing an interview (which I totally do not do), reaching out to a radio station, gluing, cutting, sticking when I could have very well laid down after work and hoped this took care of it's self. I didn't I had a purpose...
I could have NEVER made this night so amazing without the wonderful people in my life, my sister, my best friends that supported me and took flyer's of their own to help, sent letters to contacts, made shirts, introduced me to ideas, new stations, radio shows, web sites... I can not even tell you what these people mean to me. I never ever dreamed this night would be so wonderful, I had my doubts, what if I didn't target the right people, what if no one showed (yes this is what I do to myself) however to my dismay people I did not believe would be able to make it showed up, seeing their faces when they walked through that door was the most amazing feeling in my heart that I can not even put into words.
I met people that had taken their child to the same doctors office I took my oldest daughter to walk through that door holding one of my flyer's and telling me their story, my heart was full. My cousin and his beautiful family had the opportunity to drive from Knoxville to show their support, friends canceling already scheduled plans to be there for me, friends reaching out wanting to bake goods to donate, family that took their time to stand by my side, friends that have loved me and my daughter since they were in Kindergarten. I could go on an on and never stop with the love and support that was offered to me on this special night.
You all know who you are and you know how very much it meant to me to have you by my side, remembering my precious Nephew, standing along side of me knowing I was intense and a hot mess, loving me just the same when I was so hyped up all I could do was run and talk and go from one wonderful person to another not spending much time with any of you one on one, you all just knew this is what I had to do, I love you all for that.....
In a nut shell I loved what we ALL did, it means the world to me and I am so excited for the next fund raiser my wheels are turning now........ I am ready to hit this ground running I hope you all want to join this journey with me...
Fun Depot had the most wonderful employees, I met this amazing young lady "Rachel" , making sure we had chairs, drinks, checking on us through the entire night to see if we needed anything, she was amazing and I now have a new friend. This place is crazy fun, from go carts, to air hockey, batting cages, every video game you could imagine, rock climbing, bumper cars, bowling, laser tag (did I mention I was placed on the team that WON) numerous attractions to enjoy, the children that came touched my heart so much the smiles on their face and the sweat running down their sweet faces from running and playing did my heart good.
Thank you all for everything for this could not have happened without YOU ALL!!!!!
So I know you are saying to yourself "good grief already will you tell us what we raised" well I am, I sure am going to tell you because I have the FINAL TOTALS.....
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| Cherry Vanilla and Peanut Butter Cookies (Gladys Banks) |
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| Brownies of ALL kinds (Donna and Josh Garris) |
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| Red Velvet Cup Cakes (Josh and Donna Garris) |
Just so you know Andy Clark was eager to help he helped me in so many ways I can not count them all but he also took these wonderful pictures, and I thank him for capturing these wonderful memories, also my new friend Mel has taken his time to come out and take pictures, so there are more to come.....
So are you wanting to know what this wonderful group of people some we know and some we don't know yes we did this as a team... Well my goal was to at least raise $500 I really wanted to raise at least that for our first event, but oh lord did we ever surpass that...... Well just let me tell you that this night was one to remember and I owe it to you all!!!!!!!! We raised a grand total of:
$1,361.45
Praise God for you are amazing and without you this would not have been possible.....
