Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Tuesday, March 3, 2015 -- Mattie died 286 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2004. Mattie was around two years old and we took him to the Children's Museum in DC. As you can see he was exploring a fire truck! Mattie was in love with anything that had a wheels and gravitated to the color RED!



Quote of the day: Unity is vision; it must have been part of the process of learning to see. ~ Henry Adams

This evening, Mattie Miracle held a dinner in honor of its core group of volunteers to thank them for their years of service to the Foundation. Some of these volunteers have been with us since 2009 (when Mattie was alive) and his care community planned the first Mattie March in Mattie's honor. Mattie Miracle is well aware of the fact that our annual Walk requires a coordinated effort to effectively run the event. Each of these volunteers play an important role in this effort! The success of the Walk is crucial since it generates a significant portion of our operating budget for the year and of course these funds go to directly helping children and their families with cancer. In a way, Peter and I feel as if the more people we can help, this illustrates the effectiveness of the Foundation which further enables us to keep Mattie's memory alive within the community.  

This evening, I shared the following information with our Walk volunteers. I wanted to show them what we accomplished together as a team! Where we started from in 2010, to where we have landed up in 2014. Each year we fortunately continue to bring in more financial support thankfully from our faithful contributors. 

2010:  "No Climb Too High" raised $16,000

2011:  "Faces of Hope” raised $25,000

2012:  "Love of Family“ raised $40,000

2013:  “Walk and Family Festival” goal was $40,000 raised $46,000

2014:  "Walk and Family Festival” goal was 50,000 and raised $55,000

Our teen vendor, Ellie will be featuring these wonderful flower pots and forget-me-not seeds at this year's walk. Ellie has been a faithful vendor at our Walk for years and the creativity comes from her. She donates 100% of her profits to us. Ellie incorporated our Foundation colors into her designs and the quote she chose to go on the seed packet is so touching! To me the seed packet alone is a gift. 



The poem reads:

Those we love don't go away

They walk beside us every day

Unseen, unheard, but always near

Still loved, still missed, still very dear.