Saturday, September 20, 2008

Saturday, September 20, 2008

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR TWO MAJOR FUNDRAISER SUCCESSES!

This morning I woke up with the notion that I could not let this day go by without attending the carwash. I hadn't thought about going because I was so focused on Mattie this week. But when my friend, Catherine stopped by this week to visit us, she asked me if I was planning on going. That question stuck in my mind, and I am happy it did. Thank you Catherine for suggesting this to me. Before I report about the amazing and wonderful experience of the carwash, I want to share with you a story sent to me by Tyler Gehrs.

Tyler is Charlotte's (Mattie's buddy or as he sometimes calls her, his girlfriend) brother. Tyler is a very special young man, I could tell this when I met him several months ago. He is a high school senior, who is very mature, well spoken, and clearly intelligent. Tyler attends a boarding high school in Delware called Saint Andrew's School. Tyler used his own initiative, energy, and passion for helping Mattie to energize his entire school community. He hosted a bingo fundraiser at his school on friday, and Peter and I are completely in awe of what Tyler accomplished in only one week. Tyler was able to raise over $7000 for Mattie. Tyler tells me that Saint Andrew's loves Mattie, well I can assure you we love Saint Andrew's. I am thoroughly impressed with the caliber of students it produces and more importantly Tyler and his classmates show me the power of determination, hard work, community, and love. I thank Tyler, his classmates, and his school's administration for helping support Mattie's treatment. What can you say to a school who is in love with your child? After all as parents it is natural that Peter and I love Mattie, but what compells 280 high schoolers to feel this sense of attachment and love? All I can say is these are our leaders of tomorrow, and they are already rising to the occasion and showing us we have hope for our future. Tyler's letter and You Tube link are below. Tyler and Saint Andrew's, we will be forever grateful!

_________________________________________
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Brown,

A week ago, I introduced Mattie and his story to the Class of 2009 here at Saint Andrew's. I told them about Charlotte and Mattie's friendship, explained Mattie's condition, and showed them the blog. I also introduced my idea for a fundraiser at Saint Andrew's to benefit Mattie: a bingo night. As soon my peers heard this, they jumped at the opportunity to help. What had started as a quick meeting turned into a thirty-minute brainstorm to find every way that we could help.

After receiving approval from the headmaster, I set the date for Friday, September 19th. Following this initial meeting, I worked with my classmates to make this the most appealing and successful fundraiser our school has ever seen. As my peers' band volunteered to perform a few of their songs for Mattie, the event evolved. My older sister, Shannon, helped me pick out some unique prizes that Saint Andrew's students would enjoy. One of my classmates and I rode around town on bikes to ask some local restaurants to donate a few gift cards that could be given away as prizes. In the end, our prizes were: one batch of cookies every week for the remainder of fall, late night trips with a teacher to go out to eat, no room inspection or breakfast sign-in for a week, seven of the best faculty dinners for the winner and four friends, 250 dollars worth of gift cards to local businesses, and a personal dinner from the school's chef.

On Thursday, I gave an announcement to the entire school community outlining Mattie and Charlotte's friendship, Mattie's diagnosis of cancer and his treatment. I got a feeling before I even told anyone about bingo or prizes, that they would have done anything to help. As I was walking back from this school meeting, students who I have never had a conversation with were approaching me to learn more about Mattie and how to donate. I was completely overwhelmed with these questions; it was amazing. I sent out an email with more information about the event and included more on Mattie as well as a link to the blog. All the way up to the event, people wanted to know more about Mattie. I could tell that everyone sincerely cared.

The event started at about 9:30 p.m., when students were released from study hall and began coming over to the performance hall, where it was being held. The student band was playing as students entered and they really got everyone excited. By the time the bingo started almost every student on campus had a bingo card. The following games of bingo were filled with excitement. For me, there were two highlights to the night that you can watch here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq0dIB3eEGE. I conceived the idea that everyone said "Hi" to Mattie and we could send it to him. I expected everyone to say it, scream for a few seconds, and then sit down. I was pleasantly surprised when everyone went completely wild and the screaming lasted for almost a whole minute. This showed me that Saint Andrew's really does love Mattie. The second moment was a performance that a friend of mine, named James, gave. James is an extremely talented beat-boxer. Every time that he performs, everyone is blown away. James dedicated a new song to Mattie and it was very touching, I hope that Mattie enjoys watching James as much as we do. More videos from the event will be online soon.

The four bingo games ended almost forty-five minutes later than they were supposed to and far past the underformer's bedtimes. Nobody seemed to care about this, not even the faculty. Everyone was so overcome with this spirit for Mattie that nobody wanted to leave. When I asked the Dean of Students how quickly I should rush students back to dorm, she simply pushed me away. Five of my friends and I piled into my dorm room to count up the total amount of money that we raised. We were all astonished as we went through it all. With around 280 students, we raised 7,071 dollars for Mattie. Out of the six of us in my room, at least one usually has something to say. When we got this number the room was silent; we were blown away. Even though I was the only one there who has met Mattie, Saint Andrew's has fallen in love with him. All of the students feel a very strong bond to Mattie even though he was a stranger only two days ago. Our thoughts and prayers will be with him forever. His courage has inspired all of us.

Sincerely, Tyler Gehrs

___________________________________________

This morning my parents came to stay with Mattie in the hospital while we headed off to the carwash. They originally were going to go to the carwash on our behalf, but the more Peter and I thought about it, the more we realized we needed to be there. Thanks Mommy and Daddy for making this possible! Mattie wanted to go to the carwash too, since he loves washing cars, but we promised to take pictures and share them with him. He seemed to understand. Mattie was still beaming from Tyler's You Tube presentation, so he was in a good mood. His reaction to Tyler's e-mail was "boy I am really getting a lot of attention now." It was funny the way he said it, because it was almost as if he couldn't believe so many people could care about him.

The carwash was a surreal experience. Someone could have tried to describe the event to me, but I really had to be there for myself to see the volume of people who came out to support Mattie. It was downright incredible. The parking lot and street were lined up with cars, and what impressed me was everyone was patient and in the mood to support a valuable cause. Besides the incredible volume, there was a captivating feeling in the air, a feeling that you can't really describe or quantify, but something that you can feel, which is so intoxicating that you want to try to bottle it up and savor it for all the hard days we have in store for us. The feelings in the air were of great admiration, love, and compassion. It was very clear to me today, that Mattie is very loved and very blessed to have all of you in his life. I am happy Peter and I could attend, because we came back empowered after talking to so many of you. Each of you shared how our situation has touched your life, and for several of you, you mentioned how this has changed your life for the better. I had the opportunity to talk with a dad today, who basically told me that my blogs have caused him to re-evaluate his priorities in life. I have had people tell me they are glued to the blog and religiously read it and thank me for sharing my feelings very openly. That by doing this and standing out on a limb, this has caused them to be open to being more vulnerable to letting others into their lives. At times today, I felt like I was attending a memorial service of my life. Now you may be asking what on earth is she talking about? Well as you are aware, during a memorial service, people get up and give tributes about you, and for most people they aren't lucky enough to be present (at least in the earthly way) for such tributes. But today, I heard feedback about myself and my family, that perhaps I wasn't prepared to hear, or at least not this early in my life. I left feeling very good about the life I have lived so far, and I will take these feeling and powerful words shared with me through this cancer journey.

The carwash volunteers were amazing. Joan Holden (SSSAS' head of school) was washing cars and there to provide her full support as was Bob Weiman (SSSAS' lower head of school). Thank you Joan and Bob for promoting this event at SSSAS and for leading by example. Mattie's kindergarten teacher, Leslie Williams was in attendance for the entire event snapping pictures and taking videos for Mattie. Thank you Leslie! Several SSSAS team coaches, athletic directors, and team members were there washing and drying cars. In fact, Coach Tillson (Head Soccer Coach) hand delivered to Peter and I a signed soccer jersey (with all the SSSAS soccer team players' signatures) and shorts. Thank you for this special gift. Coach Dave and his family were there to support Mattie, as well as Tricia Lyons (Upper School Service Learning Coordinator). Several of my GW students were present and working hard on Mattie's behalf as well. Thanks Katie and Alexandra for bringing your girl scout troop to the event, and for Zachary sharing this special bottle cap with Matite. This was an event for all ages, and there were even preschoolers down on their hands and knees washing cars. It was a precious sight to see. A special thank you to Johnny P. and Ann for coordinating this amazing event. When Ann called me tonight to tell me that the event generated over $6000, I was stunned. Please know how grateful we are Ann and Johnny for all your coordination. In a matter of two days, Mattie has generated a $13,000 fund to support his treatment. Below you will see some pictures we captured from today. I thank you all, and know that you made my family feel very special and honored today.

Thank you Charlotte for coming by the hospital this afternoon. Thanks for the Scooby glow in the dark stickers and the educational learning game. We will get a lot of use out of that. The funny part about this visit was Mattie was chasing Charlotte down the hallway with his IV pole in tow, trying desperately to kiss her. It was thoroughly amusing to witness.

On the electronic front, thank you Kim, Susan, and Emily W. for the wonderful e-cards and
Kathryn Boyd Loftus (her son Matt, a senior, helped at the carwash and is having a mass at Holy Trinity in Mattie's honor), Dianne C., Wayne H., Jill C., and Beth and Charles for your e-mails. Beth, thank you for a wonderful dinner and for the spinny robots. Mattie loves them!

As I close tonight, we are still in the hospital. The criteria for leaving is that Mattie needs to be able to eat and drink something. Mattie is refusing all liquids. I was able to give him three teaspoonfuls of water tonight, but he won't drink anything else, and believe me I have tried all sorts of things. He says he is afraid of vomiting and also his stomach is full. I am trying to see if it is really this, or a combination of fear and control (he doesn't have control over anything else in his life, other than what he consumes). Pray that tomorrow Mattie eats and drinks, so we can be released from the hospital. Lastly, the next issue arose tonight. Both of Mattie's lumens (or central lines) got clogged tonight. We can't get medicine or hydration in or out of the lines. A major problem indeed! Our nurse has put a high concentration of heparin in the lines tonight in hopes of thinning out any blood that has pooled in the ends of the central line. Another thing we hope gets resolved by tomorrow.

Goodnight and thank you for making our day such a memorable and blessed one!



Left: Annie H. welcoming people to the carwash.

Right: The carwash team hard at work! Featuring many SSSAS soccer team members.

GW students: Melissa, Dona, Vicki, Carrie (Vicki's TA) and Robin

Right: Vicki and Susie

Left: Maddie G. hard at work on a tire!

Left: Great signs SSSAS first graders! Right: Liz C. and Carrie working hard at washing cars!

Left: Danelle working the bake stand and collecting all the money from the carwash.

top: Sara Catherine, Catherine, and Johnny P. (the originator of today's fundraiser)

bottom: Peter, Elice (GW student), Vicki, and Honey (one of Vicki's supervisors at GW)

Left: Vicki and Dona (GW Student)

Right: GW students hard at work: Mandy, Beth, and Maria

Left: our canine supporter, Jax! Thanks Carrie for bringing Jax. He was a major hit.

Right: Peter and Mark (our RCC friend)

Left: Leslie Williams (Mattie's kindergarten teacher on the far left - diligently taking pictures and videos of the event) on the far left with the Saints t-shirt, and Ann (Team Mattie coordinator) on the right in motion helping to make the event a success!