Monday, May 28, 2018

Monday, May 28, 2018

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009. Friends of ours went to Hershey Pennsylvania, to visit Hershey Park. They were thinking of Mattie and brought him back a Hershey Kiss pillow. I think it was absolutely ironic that Mattie posed for a photo with this pillow and was smiling! Why? Because Mattie hated chocolate. He hated its smell and look and always had a fit if he saw me eating it. Even when I was pregnant with Mattie, if I tried to eat chocolate, it would make me sick. Which was why for 9 months, I couldn't eat chocolate. So this was the closest chocolate Mattie ever got close to..... a chocolate pillow. 



Quote of the day: It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone. ~ John Steinbeck

Today, I am returning to highlighting our Walk through photos! It is hard to believe that the Walk was only a week ago yesterday. 

These photos illustrate our corn hole tournament. 
We had 30 people register to play corn hole. Given that we have 6 boards, six sets of two can play at one time. However, there are multiple sets played in order to result in a first, second, and third prize winner. This photo is of the great volunteers we had who ran the tournament and helped judge and keep score. 

Three years ago, Peter worked with a group of Girl Scouts to build and design our corn hole boards. To me they are a work of art. 

There were two MUSTS I had..... 1) the Girl Scouts had to follow our color palate (orange, red, and yellow) and 2) the Mattie sun had to have ONLY 7 rays. As each ray in our logo represents one of the years Mattie was alive. 

This is Ellie. Ellie and Mattie went to preschool together. Ellie has been volunteering with the Foundation since middle school. She has done everything from designing headbands, to flower pots, and now works hard on fundraising and setting up the Walk event. Ellie and her parents get to the event at 6am each year, and are instrumental at helping Peter do the heavy lifting to set up tents, tables, chairs, and posters. We couldn't do the Walk without them. People may also notice that I wear a butterfly headband at each Walk. This headband was designed for me by Ellie. The headband is a tribute to Mattie's life and his friendship with Ellie. 

This is a photo of Mike and Matt. Mike is Tricia's (Mattie's favorite HEM/ONC nurse) husband and Matt is Nicole's (Tricia's daughter) boyfriend. Tricia's whole family participates in our Walk every year as well as the corn hole tournament.

Our corn hole winners (Ethan, Ellie, and Mike), along with Ann (the coordinator of the corn hole tournament).

Ann and me with Ethan (our first prize winner..... 4 diamond level tickets to a Nat's baseball game, which includes food and parking).

Ann and me with Ellie (our second prize winner... Amazon Echo Dot and 2 infield tickets to a Nat's baseball game).

Ann and me with Mike (our third prize winner...... $50 gift card to the Great American Restaurant group).