Friday, May 22, 2020

Friday, May 22, 2020


Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2005. Mattie was three years old and that day we took him to the butterfly pavilion at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.  Mattie had a great time and several butterflies even landed on him!


Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 1,598,631
• number of people who died from the virus: 95,874

Peter and I spent about 5 hours driving around town delivering prizes and raffle baskets to our winners. Yesterday, I went to the post office and mailed five boxes of prizes and raffle items to out of state winners. So it was two days of logistics, and I was determined to get everything out in less than one week's time. This is our map of today's journey. We traveled from Washington, DC throughout Northern Virginia! 


Here's the fun part about today, which we did not expect. With each delivery, people wanted to talk with us. I am not talking about a quick hi how are you, I am talking about a true conversation. It was wonderful to meet our supporters in this more intimate way and to hear their stories and perspectives about Mattie Miracle! It was very special and at a time when we are all social distancing, it is clear that people are craving for face to face interactions and conversation.

When we dropped off a raffle item today, we had the pleasure of meeting this family. A family who has participated in our walks many years! But this is the first time, I had the opportunity to interact one on one with them. The young girl holding Emme the dog, is Alexandra. Alexandra won our ipad raffle basket. But I also met her younger sister, Kendall.  I got to hear how much they loved the walk and were really motivated to get in as much steps as they could. In fact, Kendall ran back inside the house to show me her step counter. 

Kendall wanted me to see that her counter is ORANGE and felt it was the perfect step counter for Mattie Miracle. But look at how many steps this young one walked for us on May 17th.... 11,244! I was very impressed. 

We also talked about our t-shirts! Their mom told me that her family keeps every shirt, and the girls use them throughout the year. Personally this caught my attention. So many people go through their closets and donate clothes they don't use on a regular basic. Yet our shirts are very much in circulation and I am  honored people save our shirts and continue to wear them!