Sunday, October 31, 2010

Long Time No News

Well since the walk is finished it has been pretty quiet here. We are planning another fundraiser to occur in December - another raffle - but other than that it has been administrative work. The walk/raffle was awesome! We made a little over $3,000 and mostly everything was donated. How amazing is God? We have enough for gift cards, for sponsoring a family, and for scholarships. We would like to wrap some books to give the families around the holidays and we have money for that too! So exciting!

We are looking to visit the NICU in Columbia again the week of Thanksgiving. It is just easier this way because I have 3 days off of work and that way I don't have to miss any more work. I just hope that Jamie will be able to go with me but he will start another class Friday.

We have a lot of momentum and I hope that we continue to keep it moving! I don't want to lose it and I have an appointment with someone who has fundraising ideas for the foundation. I am really excited and hope that we will continue to reach others who have a heart for this foundation. I hope that our foundation inspires others to help - whether it is our foundation or an organization that is close to their hearts.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Our First Event!

Our first Hold My Heart benefit walk was this Saturday. We had 150 people there - either walking or helping out. It wasn't easy but God provided us with a successful first event and with wonderful people who supported us. I can't tell you how many people dedicated their time and money to help us out. It's so awesome to see people come together to help others. That's what this foundation is all about. God has blessed us so much with this foundation to glorify Him and remember our sweet daughter.

Here's a recap of the day: We woke up super early to get things done. Jamie went with his good friends to set up and I went with my good friend for the event to try to pick up some coffee for the volunteers. Unfortunately that did not work out at Starbucks. Kinda funny - I called ahead asking for 2 coffee-to-gos and when we got there the lady thought we meant 2 coffees to go. But with a quick call to another friend we were able to get some coffee.

Once we got to the community center, we started setting up all the registration stuff and the tables. Before 8:00 we had people coming to sign-up that day! Pretty soon it got pretty hectic with people checking in. Note for next year: Have 2 tables. Live and learn.

Spirit FM got there and started setting up. It was awesome that they were able to come out. We were able to get a live broadcast so people could hear about our event.

At 9:00 they were off! It was so awesome to see everyone start off. There were some hard core people there! After the runners started I went with Fred, the DJ from Spirit FM, and did an interview. I was nervous but it went well. Hopefully people heard it and visited the website. The more we get out there the better for this foundation and the families that we help.

In about 30 minutes the first few people started to come in. As I talked more with Fred, more and more people came in. A couple of hours later the last person came in and it was time to draw for the door prizes and raffle! Thanks to a good friend we had a ton of door prizes. She was able to go out the day before and get us awesome tool prizes. For a complete list of our sponsors please visit our website at www.holdmyheartfoundation. We will also get pictures of the event up at the website as well as on our Facebook page.

It was so awesome. You never know what will happen in life but one thing is for sure. God loves you and will help you through anything. We've had a rough year but the positive has outweighed the negative. Thank you too all of our family, friends, sponsors, and participants who helped make our first event a success. We'll see you next year!