The CureSearch Walk was good. I wish there had been more participation in the community. There was a Heart Association Walk the very next weekend where it was reported that 10,000 people participated. It is my hope that next year just as many people take an interest in raising funds for childhood cancer research here in this community. At the walk, I got up and spoke about Ambrosia and why we chose to participate in the walk. I was really nervous to speak, even though it wasn't a large crowd there were still passersby and people up on the Big Four walking bridge that could hear my story through the speakers. Once up on the stage I was able to get through my speech until I had to speak the words that Ambrosia had passed. I had to pause after that as I became emotional. Having to declare it again and in a public setting was hard. Not that I don't live with the reality of her being gone every day, but having to say it out loud to strangers was hard. I was able to get through the rest of the speech and step down. Soon after it was time for the balloon release and the DJ started playing a song that someone had posted to my Facebook after Ambrosia passed. It was the perfect song to play but also caused more tears. Here is the song:
All the participants then went on the walk. Once back at the starting point they handed out awards for the top fundraising teams and individuals. We won 3rd place for team and individuals! We raised $1035 with just our 3 person team. The walk total so far has raised $21,855 out of a $35,000 goal. That's pretty impressive as there were only 8 participating teams! One team raised over $10,000 by themselves. Imagine what we could raise if there were as many participants as the Heart Walk! There is still time to donate to the walk! We have until December 31st to raise money. If you feel so inclined please take a look at the website and donate! http://www.curesearchwalk.org/louisville/angelsforambrosia
Since the walk ended, I was approached by the coordinator from CureSearch to chair the walk for next year. I asked exactly what that would entail and she gave me a description. I have thought about it a lot and have decided to do it. I will have support from a CureSearch coordinator to help guide me and I really hope to make next year's walk a bigger success than this year. Here are some pictures from this year's walk:
The week after the walk I volunteered at the CureSearch booth at the APHON conference. APHON is the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Nurses. I was excited to help out and also to see some of the nurses who took care of Ambrosia that I hadn't seen since our last hospital stay. Walking in to the conference center trying to find where I was supposed to be, I ran into one of the OMO (Outpatient Medical Observation) nurses. She gave me a big hug and immediately the tears came forth. We only got to chat for a minute as she was on her way back to a meeting. I figured out where I was supposed to be and contacted the CureSearch person to let me in to the exhibition area. She came and gave me a badge to make me official.
The booth was brightly colored and decorated with candy jars filled with candy! There was a lot of cool things for the nurses to take and information for them to give to the parents of patients they attend.
I got to see one of my favorite nurses that day. We hugged and cried and talked for quite awhile. It was nice to see her and the other nurses as well. I was glad I was able to help out that day and I hope there are more opportunities to volunteer again!
Here in a couple of weeks we will be going to a bereavement camp for 3 days. I am looking forward to it. There will be activities for Braeden separately from Wes and me. We went to an orientation the other night and got to see a slideshow of things we will be doing and where we will be staying. One of the things we get to do is make a pillow. Each of us picked out pictures of Ambrosia which will be put on transfer paper. Then they will be put on a pillow for us to decorate. I am looking forward to that. There are a lot of other things we will be doing while at camp and I will be taking my camera. Hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures to share.
While at the orientation for camp, the counselor from Hosparus told us that she belongs to an art council group of some kind. Some of the ladies there were talking about a quilt they were making. She said she couldn't say anything to them because of privacy but they were talking about the quilt that is being made out of Ambrosia's clothes. They said it was coming out beautifully. I am really excited to know that it is being worked on and I hope I get to see it soon. It will be nice to have once the weather turns colder to wrap up in.
Recently I began following more groups related to childhood cancer from the Angels for Ambrosia Facebook page. A few days ago I saw a post that ended up taking me to a video. This video just won an Emmy. It was filmed by a group called The Truth 365. If you take nothing else from this blog post, please take this. I am urging you to watch this video and then do what it asks you to do. Share it with as many people as you can think of. Email it, share it on Facebook, on Twitter, or any other social media that you use. The video is almost an hour long. Please make sure you watch it in it's entirety. Even if you have to stop it and come back to it. It's important to watch. I have been doing my best to have a celebrity watch it and tweet about it. I had a little success in getting some celebrities to tweet about a childhood cancer blog post earlier this month. We need this to happen so more awareness can be raised along with funding for childhood cancer. Here is the video:
Here in a couple of weeks we will be going to a bereavement camp for 3 days. I am looking forward to it. There will be activities for Braeden separately from Wes and me. We went to an orientation the other night and got to see a slideshow of things we will be doing and where we will be staying. One of the things we get to do is make a pillow. Each of us picked out pictures of Ambrosia which will be put on transfer paper. Then they will be put on a pillow for us to decorate. I am looking forward to that. There are a lot of other things we will be doing while at camp and I will be taking my camera. Hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures to share.
While at the orientation for camp, the counselor from Hosparus told us that she belongs to an art council group of some kind. Some of the ladies there were talking about a quilt they were making. She said she couldn't say anything to them because of privacy but they were talking about the quilt that is being made out of Ambrosia's clothes. They said it was coming out beautifully. I am really excited to know that it is being worked on and I hope I get to see it soon. It will be nice to have once the weather turns colder to wrap up in.
Recently I began following more groups related to childhood cancer from the Angels for Ambrosia Facebook page. A few days ago I saw a post that ended up taking me to a video. This video just won an Emmy. It was filmed by a group called The Truth 365. If you take nothing else from this blog post, please take this. I am urging you to watch this video and then do what it asks you to do. Share it with as many people as you can think of. Email it, share it on Facebook, on Twitter, or any other social media that you use. The video is almost an hour long. Please make sure you watch it in it's entirety. Even if you have to stop it and come back to it. It's important to watch. I have been doing my best to have a celebrity watch it and tweet about it. I had a little success in getting some celebrities to tweet about a childhood cancer blog post earlier this month. We need this to happen so more awareness can be raised along with funding for childhood cancer. Here is the video:
And here is the web address for it, if you'd rather watch it in a different window than on my blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oljTL1iuMmY
I titled my blog post for this group because like I said, if you take nothing else from this post please take away watching this video and sharing it with everyone. It is so important!
I titled my blog post for this group because like I said, if you take nothing else from this post please take away watching this video and sharing it with everyone. It is so important!
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