Thursday, April 30, 2020

Thursday, April 30, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2008 (two months before he was diagnosed with cancer). That weekend we took Mattie to Calvert Cliffs Park in Maryland. This is a very unique nature trail, because it is about a mile of walking in the woods. The trail leads you to the Chesapeake Bay. This sandy beach is known for its sharks teeth. You have to be patient and do a lot of digging, but Mattie loved the adventure and never left empty handed. I have all the sharks teeth he collected over the years. Needless to say after Mattie died, we never ventured back to this park. 

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

• number of people who were diagnosed with the virus: 1,068,696
• number of people who died from the virus: 62,870

Prior to COVID-19, I never heard of Zoom. But now, I think EVERYONE knows they are an American communications technology company headquartered in San Jose, California. They provide videotelephony and online chat services. It is basically how the majority of us do conference calls during the pandemic. Except it isn't only an audio conference call, there is a video component so we can see each other and we can even share our computer screens for presentations. Today, we had a Zoom call with a portion of our Walk planning committee. We are lucky that the committee is still energized and wants to help us raise funds and build awareness. Their support, helps us brainstorm, strategize, and certainly get closer to meeting our Walk goal. 

Since the Walk is virtual this year, our objective is a bit different. We feel this is the perfect time to build awareness for the Foundation around the United States. Our event is no longer confined to Northern Virginia. Therefore, anyone can participate for just $25. Learn more at www.mmcfwalk.

Our campaign this year is two fold: 1) Come walk virtually with us, get some fresh air (while socially distancing), and support a good cause. 2) Help us get at least one person from every state to participate in our event (by registering, being a sponsor, making a donation, or purchasing raffle tickets). This map is helping us track participants. As of now (though we need to update the map), we have 23 states participating in our event! Amazing! 

Some current walk facts:

1. 111 people registered for the Walk
2. 23 States Participating
3. 12 Corporate Sponsors and 11 Individual Sponsors
4. So far we have raised $63,000
5. Our On-Line Raffle has sold $1,200 worth of tickets
6. There are 125 individual donations 
7. 11 Walk teams

Meanwhile it was an awful weather day and Sunny wasn't happy. He practically refused to walk all day today. Which is NOT like Sunny. Perhaps the rain and dampness is affecting his knee differently now?! We don't know, but we even tried putting him in his raincoat. It did not help, so we suspect he is in pain. He sees the doctor next week as well as meets his PT on Tuesday. We spoke to the PT today and she sounded like Julie Andrews... which automatically made me feel better.