Sunday, May 5, 2013

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2004. Mattie was two years old and on a walk with us through Roosevelt Island. As you can see Mattie collected dandelions along the way. Mattie liked to collect things..... rocks, sticks, leaves, and flowers. We never came home from a walk on the Island without a keepsake. In fact when Mattie was at Georgetown Hospital, on the days he was well enough to go outside with his wheelchair, he would collect things from the Hospital garden. We still have the huge rock he picked up outside the Hospital library. This rock serves as our front doorstop now and whenever I look at that rock, I remember that day strolling outside the Hospital with Mattie.

Quote of the day: Remember no man is a failure who has friends. ~ From the movie, A Wonderful Life

A Wonderful Life is not only a classic holiday movie, but it is a movie which portrays and celebrates values, convictions, and the meaning of one's honor, loyalty, and word. I suppose from time to time, just like George Bailey, we all need someone to tell us our life matters or what we are doing is important. I may not have a "Clarence" in my life, but someone who I recently have become acquainted with wanted me to know that he feels I am special and an angel. Clearly I am no angel, but the notion made me smile. This quote was sent to me today and I decided to post it. At the end of the day, it is our human connections that matter the most and what truly determines our success. We forget that from time to time and with today's fast pace world, few people make the time or have the energy to listen, slow down, and connect with someone on a deeper level. Without such connections however, life is hollow and meaningless.

It was another BUSY day in our home. I can happily report that 11 out of 12 raffle baskets for the Foundation are not only staged but wrapped. I would have wrapped all 12, but the items for the twelfth basket haven't been donated yet. They are on their way! Below are photos to help you see what has kept me busy this weekend! However, what you can't see is the months of work that went into soliciting and accumulating these items! To see the content of these baskets in more detail, please go to: https://www.mattiemiracle.com/Raffle.html

A new raffle item this year is a T-shirt Quilt Basket. I am friends with a mom whose child is a cancer survivor. This mom started her own quilt making business. She makes beautiful pieces of art! Terri has offered to make one of our raffle winners a t-shirt quilt. Literally this is a quilt made out of t-shirts that the winner will give to Terri. Usually people select t-shirts that have meaning and importance to them which they want to capture within a quilt. In terms of our raffle basket, we are getting people in a t-shirt mood by adding three of our Walk t-shirts (walks 2010, 2011, and 2012) as a memento.

Sometimes people ask me how Carolyn (our Raffle chair) and I come up with the basket ideas! Well at times the ideas just present themselves to us. Kathleen Kinsolving wrote to me one day and told me she was going to send me a signed copy of her book, Dogs of War. Thanks to Kathleen's contribution, we decided to create a Furry Friends Basket.

I have had the good fortune of being connected to a Brownie Troop at Mattie's school. This Brownie Troop donated all their sale proceeds from selling girl scout cookies to Mattie Miracle. The donation was specifically to help us generate this cute Money Tree Basket. Hanging from our tree are all sorts of wonderful gift cards to stores like Macy's, Target, Starbucks, and Amazon (to name a few!).

Our International Dining Basket may be hard to see through a photograph, but the structure of this basket isn't a box or basket. It is a metal Eiffel Tower Keurig Coffee Cup holder. Attached to the Eiffel Tower are many wonderful gift cards to local restaurants!

Back by popular demand is our Sailing Excursion Basket. It is always a top seller!

This Father's Day Basket has a very patriotic theme and I thought it wouldn't be complete without a beautiful butterfly.  

This is our Washington Capitals Basket! I may put these baskets together but I do not brainstorm these creations alone. My friend Carolyn and I have been working together on the Mattie Miracle raffle for four years now. It is a labor of love and Carolyn helps me accumulate and shop for all these items. Carolyn also keeps us organized and has ticket sales, quantities, and selling data down to a science.

This is our Las Vegas Basket. However, Caesars entertainment has 38 other properties (most of which are not gambling related) around the Country that this gift certificate would also cover.

This is our Spa basket! Filled with all sorts of goodies.

Our Nats Basket just screams... take me out to the ball game! Not only does this item feature amazing tickets but the Nats gear inside the basket will make any fan happy.

The ABBA Basket celebrates the dancing queen within all of us. Mattie was a huge ABBA fan and I know if he knew we were featuring this basket he would be thrilled!