Wine event recap.

Program from our 1st ever CF event, hosted by team Victory for Violet

 

Friday April 12, 2013 was an awesome night for us. A landmark in our fundraising efforts to find a CURE for CF. After months of hard work, planning and bombarding friends and family for donations and auction items, we are happy to report, it was all worth it!

Our name tags for the evening

Andy & Me, Violet's proud parents

 

We are still unsure on the exact number of tickets we sold, but we are certain it was a great turn out!The club was full, the energy was high, and the night was enjoyable!

 One table of auction items

 

 Dessert wines and chocolate beer table

 

 Table 2 of auction items

 Table 3 of items

including an original print and tattoo work by Daaron Davis

 and my favorite Violet painting ever, which was the object of a bidding war

 Centerpieces

 All set up ready for guests

White wine table

There were a lot of our friends, and family, a bunch of our parents' friends, friends of their friends and even some strangers who read about our cause in the paper. It was very endearing to meet people who are touched by Violet's story, whether they have a connection or not. It is also very humbling to see so many people, many of which have never even met our daughter, go out of their way to show support for her.

Awesome! Fun times! Great memories! Lots of pics!

 

 Me with friends

 Andy's family

 Andy with his brothers and best friend

Me & Candie, a friend and volunteer

 My siblings

 

 Me with Rachael, a friend who got 10 volunteers from Kohl's

( just another reason to shop there)

Me with my sister Lindsay and one of my sister-in-laws, Amanda

 

And even better then that, the event was a success!

The grand total amount of funds raised was over $22,000! Combined with our total raised from Great Strides last year that is over $57,000 team Victory for Violet has raised!

A BIG Thank you to my mom, Bonnie and everyone who volunteered, donated, bought tickets, sold tickets,sponsored, or gave auction items, and especially those of you that traveled here for the night. We appreciate every last one of you!

 

 Beautiful cups made and donated by the Steninger family!!

Our team t-shirts

I think it is safe to say, if you missed the event this year, you missed out...but luckily this will now be an annual event. We will see you next Spring!

 

Of course it wouldn't be a post without pics of the namesake....

 Violet, pretty in purple

 Trying so hard to do it herself

 

And by the way..that Violet painting...the war was won, by my mom.

Who graciously gave the painting to us!

Looks great in our hall!

 



The excitement is building

Tomorrow is the big day, finally! I feel like I did the night before our wedding, up thinking about a million and 1 things, when I should be fast asleep!

 

Of course things will go smoothly, fingers crossed. How could they not, my mother has things meticulously planned to the T! From color coding of tickets, to the arrangement of all 70 some auction items to the scheduling of all volunteers for each task at hand.

 

 

 

From the volunteers, to the patrons, to the businesses who sponsored and generous individuals who donated, there are literally hundreds of people involved in our special night.One adorable little girl is the inspiration behind this remarkable event, and even more amazing is the thousands of people who will benefit from so much generosity!

 

 

Hopefully all of our hard work, (well more like my mom's hard work, sleepless nights and extreme dedication) will pay off tomorrow! It would be great to have a large amount of dough to hand over to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, but it is just as important to me to spread awareness as well. The more people that are made aware of CF and what it means to live with it, the more lives that will be touched, and the greater chance a cure will be found. There is nothing more rewarding then being a part of a movement...a movement to buy more science, and to save more lives!

 

Here's to adding many more tomorrows!!!

 



Hello April

Another month has flown by. I wish I could say and with it brings warm weather, but then I'd be lying. 

Trying to beat the cabin fever

 One thing I can say, that everyone has said at one time or another, is that time flies by way too quickly.You wait 40 long weeks for the baby to come, and those weeks seem to trudge along. Then the baby comes and things happen in warp speed. Am I right? You blink and you might miss something. A baby's first laugh, a toddler's first steps, a child's first day of school, etc..

The Munchkins decorating Easter eggs

 

One important thing I've realized in the last few years is that as cliche as it is, you have to make the most of everyday. Tomorrow is never promised, so live for today.Quite often I have to remind myself of that.With that in mind, I have to share a story. I recently met a woman who during just a short encounter, really touched my heart. She was fairly young, and battling cancer. She'd beaten it twice, but this time it is back and mets to her bones, mainly her spine. Not a good prognosis, but she had the best outlook. She told me when she starts feeling bad for herself she thinks about Helen Keller, and how it could be so much worse. I somehow brought up Violet and shared the story of her illness, (thinking how lucky I am that she has CF and how it didn't come close to being as terrifying as terminal cancer,)and was shocked when the lady asked to see a picture of her. With tears in her eyes said she can't imagine the heartache of a sick child, and she'd pray for her, and our family. Gulp. How selfless of her. How selfish am I, are we all, when we complain about the little things? The things that in the big scheme of everything don't mean jack! I'm not saying none of our problems are dire, and I don't think people should restrict their ranting.(when your having a bad day sometimes it's all you can do) I have  come to the realization that the more time you waste complaining the more time you lose out on doing things you can enjoy.

 

 

 

As April begins, and we eagerly await for Spring to really start, it also signifies the end for other things. 5 more weeks of school for me. I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, meaning more time home with the girls,less opportunity for Ava to ask if I have to leave again, more time to exercise and stop eating out of vending machines,and most excitingly the next time I pull 12 hour shifts in the hospital I will be getting paid to do so, not paying to do them.

 

 

 2 more weeks until our first big CF event, all thanks to my mom and her organizational skills. They say it takes a village to raise a child, well I say Bonnie does the work of a village with a little help from her good friends to pull things off perfectly.

 

Less then 5 weeks until our Great Strides walk for CF. This will be our second year participating. Last year we had over 100 members, and were able to raise over $34,000. We are so proud of our success, especially for being an inaugural team. This year we are off to a good start with 76 members, and over $10,000 raised. I am hoping to blow past our amount raised last year, but the time is winding down. I sometimes wonder if we did so well last year because of the shock of Violet's diagnosis? Now that the shock value is gone, it's a lot harder to motivate other people without being pushy. I hate asking people for money, even though it's not going to me, or even to my kid directly, it still feels awkward. Yet I continue to do so because I know it will have a positive impact not only on Violet but many other families. People are surprising. Like I've said before sometimes strangers are the kindest souls, and sometimes the people we imagined might take an active role sit on the sidelines. It always astonishes me when friends of family or my friends' friend or family are generous to us. They have no obligation to us, yet they choose to kind because they are just that, genuinely kind people. No matter how you know our family, or have come to find out about Violet and her cause, we'd like to say Thank You.

 

 

Thank you for thinking about our baby.

Thank you for making that donation, big or small.

Thank you for offering your help or acquiring that auction item.

Thank you for joining our team and your fundraising efforts.

 Most of all Thank you for your kind thoughts and inquiring about Violet's health.

 

 

Thank You from our family to yours!