Friday, November 16, 2018

Friday, November 16, 2018


Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2004. Mattie was two and a half years old and I snapped a photo of him doing one of his zillion puzzles. I learned very early on with Mattie.... he loved puzzles and was good at them. He quickly moved into more advanced puzzles and by the time he was diagnosed with cancer (age 6), he was doing 1000 piece puzzles. With help of course, but he was tenacious and liked the challenge!







Quote of the day: Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. ~ George Bernard Shaw


Monday - we drove to Baltimore. We drove 120 miles round trip. Candy was delivered to:

• Children's Hospital at Sinai
• Hackerman-Patz House
• Ronald McDonald House

Tuesday - I delivered candy to:

• Hospital for Sick Children (DC)
• Ronald McDonald House (DC)
• Children's Inn (MD)
• Children's National Medical Center (DC)

Wednesday - I delivered candy to Special Love. We met in Reston, VA. Meanwhile, my friend delivered candy to:

• MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
• Nourish Now (MD)
• United Community Ministries (VA)

Thursday - in the snow, I delivered candy to:

• Pediatric Specialists of Virginia
• Ronald McDonald House of Falls Church, VA

Friday - today was another winner of a day. We drove 100 miles all over town. We delivered to:

• Embry Rucker Shelter (VA)
• Cornerstones (VA)
• Sasha Bruce (DC)
• Covenant House (DC)
• St. Ann's Center for Children, Youth, and Families (MD)

A total of 18 deliveries this week!

When we got to the garage this morning, this was the amount of candy we had to load into the Uhaul. It was a ton! Actually when I look at this, it doesn't even seem possible that I have been delivering candy all week. How could all of this still be staring at us in the face?? 

The answer is...... because we collected 15,000 pounds of candy. Candy weighs a ton and I was upset that our helpers who were supposed to meet us this morning did not show up. So instead, Peter and I loaded all of this onto the truck ourselves. 

In twenty minutes we got it all in. Thankfully Peter understand spacial relationships and knows how to pack the truck. What I would say though is that every community based agency we interfaced with today was very happy to see us, they were appreciative that we are supporting them (as they know this is beyond the scope of our organization) and they shared with us how the candy will be used. In some cases the candy is used as behavior management incentives, it helps citizens who are homeless (as we were told sugar helps to provide energy to keep the body warm), and overall the candy will brighten the days of many children and families in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia are who are living in shelters and trying to get re-established and back to living within the community.