Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2008. A month before Mattie was diagnosed with cancer. I went with Mattie and Peter in a kayak on the Potomac River that weekend. Naturally despite being on the water, I brought my camera with me, and snapped a picture of Mattie in action. At first I thought maybe Peter took this photo, but upon closer inspection of this photo, I can see my finger on Mattie's back, and realize that it was definitely me capturing that wonderful smile.  


Quote of the day: A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. ~ Mahatma Gandhi


Today was the last full day I had with my parents before they return to Los Angeles on Thursday. One of the things we did today was visit Becca Jacks, the executive chef at Clyde's of Tyson's Corner. Becca donated and cooked all the food served at the Foundation Walk. She is a very thoughtful, generous, and giving individual. I admire her passion to want to help us, and I especially love her "can do" attitude. It was wonderful to see Becca today, and chat with her for a while over lunch. I love getting to know her, and I can safely conclude she is beautiful both inside and out!

Despite an amazing down pour this evening, my mom and I drove to Alexandria to attend a ballet recital. My friend Mary, invited us to see her daughters, Abby and Emily, perform. My mom and I love the ballet, and to some extent tonight's performance brought us back in time. Because when I was Abby and Emily's age, I too was in recitals and my mom was right along side me. Abby and Emily did a beautiful job this evening. They are lovely dancers and have a spirit, smile, and energy about them that captures your attention when they are on the stage. Emily was in the black and white costume and Abby was in the red costume. The recital paid tribute to dolls from different cultures.... Hungarian, Chinese, Viennese, etc... Emily's dance class performed as "Italian dolls" and they danced the tarantella using colorful tambourines and Abby's dance class performed as "Spanish dolls," which featured dancing with beautiful fans. It was very nice to be included in such a family event.

I would like to share five pictures from the Foundation Walk with you tonight! This was one of the pictures of our Raffle tent. We featured 13 amazing raffle baskets and sold over 1500 raffle tickets! Peter and I are deeply grateful to our raffle chair and friend Carolyn. Carolyn and I are a great team, and the funny part is she emailed me today to say she was going through raffle withdrawal. I totally relate to her feelings, since we have been working diligently on this for months! It isn't only the working toward a goal that I miss, but it is the wonderful opportunity to be connected with a friend on a daily basis.

I was able to capture this picture of Peter with a couple of our volunteers. The Foundation is lucky to have incredibly dedicated individuals who freely give up their entire Sunday to help us and our cause. Not only do they give up their Sunday, but they also work hard at planning and coordinating kid friendly activities weeks before the Walk. From left to right are: Peter, Michael (Ann's son), Ann, Debbie, and Sue. Debbie and Sue are two of our Children's Program Coordinators at the Walk. Debbie has served in this role for three straight years. Our working styles are similar and she is yet another person I will miss connecting with now that the Walk is complete.

I am pictured with Susan and Margaret in this photo. These two ladies run our Foundation area at the Walk. They answer questions and help process donations on site. Susan is a former student of mine and now a colleague and friend and Margaret is Mattie's preschool teacher and our friend. This year with a Foundation on-site donation, a contributor could receive a wristband, Mattie Miracle pens, water bottles, or Mr. Sun cards (featuring Mattie's painting).

This is Ellie! Ellie is nine years old and one of our featured kid/teen vendors at the Walk. Ellie worked for weeks on designing 100 beautiful head bands to sell at the Walk. In fact, the orange butterfly headband I wore at the Walk, was an Ellie original. Ellie did a fantastic job displaying and selling her merchandise at her table entitled, "Bands for Hope." Bands for Hope was a success and I do believe our guest speaker from last year's Walk, Lauren Chelenza (a 14 year old Osteosarcoma survivor and creator of Bows for Hope) inspired Ellie. Ellie took that inspiration and her creativity, and the rest is history.

Featured at this teen vendor table is Isabel and her friend, Ella. Isabel worked for weeks on hand designing bottle cap magnets. The magnets featured Mattie Miracle logos on it and other Mattie related items such as cupcakes, bugs, the Red Sox, Elmo, etc... The magnets were very popular and it is actually Isabel who I have to thank for giving me the notion of having an all kid/teen vendor table area this year at the Walk. This vendor idea was VERY successful and ironically more profitable than if I brought in vendors from the community to sell their wears.