4th Annual Great Strides Walk was a SUCCESS!!!

Our big 4th Annual Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis was this past Sunday and it was AMAZING!! We had about 150+ walkers and raised about $20,000 dollars!!! WOOHOO!!!!

Our first year we only had about 50 walkers and only raised about $5,000...I'm so happy how our walk has grown and multiplied!! The more walkers=more money raised=the closer we are to a CURE!!! :) 

Our first year, everyone was able to stand under the pavilion and I would just stand on a table to talk, but this year there were so many walkers, that the only thing that would work was the loud speaker from the Ambulance:) And then Officer Cruz was nice enough to start the walk off with his siren! That was pretty cool! Maybe next year I'll see if Lil' Chris can push the button, that would be neat:)

This year was the first year I had to do all the announcements and everything, b/c Nate from the foundation had to go to another walk. I didn't mind doing it, but I felt bad that I wasn't more prepared. I got up there and completely went blank on a lot of our sponsors:( Next year I will def make a list and be sure to mention all of our sponsors!! So... since I can't go back in time and add them to what I said...I'll just mention them now on my blog(please feel free to share this blog post;) lol....

BIG THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS...
Panera Bread donated 100 yummy bagels. THANKS JESSICA!!!
Domino's on Burbank donated 25 yummy pizza's. THANKS VIC!!!!
McDonald's on Burbank donated 30 cheese burgers and french fries. THANKS LINDA and CHRISTIE!!!
Kohl's in New Philly, Medina, and Wooster=$1,500 for the day of the walk!!! WOOHOO!! By Sept, Kohl's will have donated about $7,000 total, and that's just OUR team, not all over the country!! Gotta love Kohl's!!!! If you don't shop Kohl's now.....you gotta start!! They raise millions for Cystic Fibrosis!!!
Wooster Christian School team had 8 different families that were there supporting Lil' Chris:) THANKS EVERYONE!!!
Preferred Wireless Sprint in Wooster
Verizon Wireless on Milltown Rd in Wooster
Wayne Savings Community Bank in Wooster
Starmark Farm in Wooster
General Building Maintance Corp. 
An anonymous $250 sponsor
The Faithful Little Cupcake
Feikert Concrete
Uncle Jim's Pepper Mustard
Pat Catan's
MCTV
Akron Aeros
Buehler's
Wooster Fire Dept
Wooster Police Dept
Samaritan Care Ambulance
Dr. Dave and his AMAZING balloon animals:)
Carrie G-Thirty-One
Stephanie W.-Arbonne
Lu Ann Miller
Phyllis and Reed Seiberling
Tim and Jessica Corbett
Kathi Bond

Overall, we had a BEAUTIFUL day for our walk, a little windy when I was trying to tape down all the prizes and when we all were trying to put up our canopies, but still a gorgeous day!! 

BIG THANK YOU to my fellow CF moms Samantha, Denna, and Alma for all their help!! Denna made little goody bags for all the kids, and made BEAUTIFUL signs for all the CF kids so the walkers could read a little bit about who they were walking for and why. Samantha got LOTS of prizes and I'm happy to say that I actually ran out of raffle tickets!!! That's the first time EVER!!! I still had stuff to give away, but there were no more names in the bucket!! WOW!!! That's awesome!! Thank you Alma and team for all the yummy cookies!!

BIG THANK YOU to Nate for bringing and setting everything all up, and to everyone else who helped out in setting up too...my husband, Spencer, Oma, Opa, Jessie, and Kevin!! I was so thankful that Kevin volunteered to take pictures with his awesome camera this year!! THANK YOU KEVIN, you're the BEST!!! I will post the pictures when I get them:)

THANK YOU to our CFers who we walked for...Lil' Chris, Daniel, Jack, Aden, Sophia, and Aubrey!! You guys did a GREAT JOB wearing your Hawaiian leis the whole time and staying away from each other, because of the risk of cross contamination!! So proud of you all!!

SPECIAL THANK YOU to all who walked for "A Cure 4 Lil' Chris!!" I would name you all, but there were so many, about 80!! That's AWESOME!!!;) We had lots of family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and  classmates!! I'm sorry I didn't get to go around and talk more with you all. You all brought tears to my eyes with how many showed up just for Lil' Chris!! We can't thank you all enough for giving up a Sunday to walk, and for all your generous donations!! 

BIG THANK YOU to my sister and her kids for driving all the way from NC to walk for Lil' Chris:) We had so much fun at the walk, at Put-in-Bay, and Acres of Fun mini golf!! Can't wait to see you guys again!!

Thanks again everyone who walked, donated, or sponsored our walk!! It sure was a SUCCESS!!! More pictures coming soon!!! :)
M
PS. Update on Lil' Chris' CF clinic visit this last Wednesday coming soon!!

Annual CF Clinic Visit / CiCi's CF Fundraiser Results

Lil' Chris had his annual CF clinic visit on May 16th and he had a GREAT report! Lungs are CLEAR!! YEA!! For those who don't know, CFers go to a special CF clinic, usually at a Children's Hospital, every 3 months for a checkup. Then every year around their birthday, they have their annual visit, which is when they go over EVERYTHING!!! These visits usually are 2-4 hours long;( We have to prep for this visit by getting x-rays and blood work done beforehand. They said that his blood work looked GREAT!! The Dr. also said his x-rays looked GREAT too!! They aren't 100% clear in the pics below, but she said she didn't see any scarring yet! BIG YEA!!!!! Here are the pics from the past 5 years, one year was missed, not sure how that happened??....

5/21/08

6/16/10

3/16/11

4/4/12 First time standing up while taking x-ray

Click here to go to the post where he got his last x-rays taken standing up.

His weight went up from 41.2 to 43.8 and his height did too a little from 44.5 to 45 inches. His weight was in the 74th percentile(up from 66th last time, 3 months ago) and his height the 90th percentile(down a little from 92) and his BMI the 40th percentile(up from 20th percentile last time:) The doctors like CFers to be at the 50th percentile or higher for BMI, so this big jump is so nice to see!!!

The doctors made no changes to his meds, but they suggested we up his pressure to 5 instead of 4 on his vest for the first 20 minutes of his 30 minute treatment. We changed the setting on our Vest and he is handling it fine:)

Now that he is almost 5, every clinic visit(every 3 months) he will have to do a PFT(Pulmonary Function Test) which they will keep track of. Up until now, he has been practicing for it, but now they will keep it on record. Most kids can't even do it at age 4, they always are impressed with him:) He did a GREAT job and scored a 99 for his FEV and a 93 for his FEV1! Pretty good, but we want 100%!!! :) Next time...next time! You'll see in the video that he got one good one in the beginning, but he got tired after that. He's still learning. What he has to do is take a really deep breath and then blow out as hard and as long as he can. He's getting there:)

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

He got a throat culture taken too. He impresses me every time when he doesn't cry or anything!!! I guess he is used to getting it done every 3 months now. It surprises me that he doesn't say things like, "I don't want to go to clinic, they will try to shove a thing down my throat!" He never complains, even though he knows it's coming! He just takes it like a man! :) That's my boy!!! I will let you know when I get the results from it. He didn't have a cough going into this visit, so I'm not expecting any bad bacterias, but you just never know with Cystic Fibrosis. That last antibiotic finally kicked out that wet cough he was having for what seemed like months! He coughs every now and then, but it's dry, so I'm not worried about it. I'm so glad that I pushed to get him on that antibiotic, b/c they fought me on it saying it was just allergies. Please pray the results come back clear or no new bad bacterias!!

So the doctor never ended up having him try the Pulmozyme for the first time in the doctors office like I was told. I guess that was just if we went with HTS instead of Pulmozyme, b/c some kids have reactions to HTS. My husband wanted to know if we could start it after vacation, and the dr saw no problem with that since it's only another month. I was kinda excited about getting started and going on vaca for the first time with it, but I guess it will be easier without it and that will make this our last vacation with no breathing treatments. Makes me sad when I think about it, but this Pulmozyme will be good for him. We want his lungs to be as healthy as they can be for when that CURE comes!!! Studies have shown fewer hospitalizations, lung infections, coughs, and antibiotics with the daily use of Pulmozyme, so I am ALL for that!!! I will post pics and videos when we do start it though:)

After our clinic visit, I had a CF fundraiser at CiCi's Pizza! BIG THANK YOU to my fellow Kohl's associates for helping out so that Kohl's would give a $500 grant!!

THANK YOU...

Jill P.

Kathleen S.

Jill S.

Laura T.

You girls are the BEST!!!

I was raffling off 2 tickets to an Indians game and we raised $170!!! Woot Woot!! Our winner of the raffle was our good supportive friends from church, Stephanie and Clay!!!! THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR YOUR AWESOME DONATION AND FOR COMING OUT TO SUPPORT US!!! They have also signed up to walk with us on June 9th at our Great Strides walk!! Stephanie has been posting her Great Strides page on Facebook and everything to help raise money!! We can't thank you enough Steph!! You'll be surprised as to how many friends and family will donate when you tell them about Lil' Chris!! Small amounts from each one adds up to a lot!!

So our total for the night including the raffle, the Kohl's grant, and the percentage from all the customers receipts was around $730!!! WOO HOO!!!! THAT'S AWESOME!! Special thanks to our neighbors Tiffany and Ryan and their kids for coming, and also Lil' Chris' teacher Ms. Carrie and her husband Justin for coming!! Thank you all for coming to support Lil' Chris and for your generous donations for A Cure 4 Lil' Chris and ALL who suffer from Cystic Fibrosis!! 

BIG thank you to everyone who donated that night at CiCi's!! Cystic Fibrosis is not funded by the government, so these fundraisers that us CF parents do are soooo important in finding that CURE!!!

My next CF Fundraiser will be at the Wooster CiCi's Pizza again on Tues May 29th from 5p-8p!! Raffle will be 2 tickets to an Indians game of your choice!!!

ALL are invited and please help me spread the word, either my word of mouth or by Facebook!!

Thanks again for everything!! Keep the prayers coming!!

M

PS. Garage Sale/CF Bake Sale Results coming soon:)

Walk for "A Cure 4 Lil' Chris" / Thank You Sponsors!

Exactly one week from today, we will be walking for "A Cure 4 Lil' Chris" at the Hewitt Cowles Pavilion by Ida Sue School at 9am!!! It's not too late to sign up to walk or to sponsor me!! Click this link to get started...http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/LilChrisChris6765 or you can mail me a check made out to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, just put "A Cure 4 Lil' Chris" in the memo:)

It's going to be a lot of FUN!!! There will be...

• Bagels from Panera Bread



• Pizza from Domino's



• Happy Meals from McDonald's



• Chips from Frito Lays



• Fruit from Buehler's



• Cookies/cup cakes made by Alma(fellow CF mom:) and her friends



• Water from Culligans



• Ice provided by Speedway

There will also be some fun entertainment for the kids, so bring the whole family:)...

• Wooster Fire truck for the kids to explore



• Wooster Police car for the kids to explore



• Craft table provided by Pat Catan's



• CF temporary tattoo's



• CF Frisbee's



• They can even ride their bikes on the beautiful walking path:)

If you bring at least $100 in sponsors, you will receive a FREE Great Strides T-shirt!! :)

Special thanks to Clear Picture for airing our CF commercial about our Great Strides Walk!! I will be taking pictures at this years walk for next years commercial;) Thanks to the Daily Record for the beautiful article about CF and the walk too!! Thanks so much for helping spread the word about Cystic Fibrosis!!!

Thank you to those who have sponsored me so far, in no particular order...

Aunt Mar

My Daddy

Uncle Joe and Aunt Diana

Elizabeth & David

Gram D

Aunt Caroline

Carol S

Al S.

Audra C

My mom

Katy & Joe U

CiCi's Pizza

Also, special thanks to my sister D, my SIL Steph, Oma & Opa, and Amy K for raising money for A CURE for Lil' Chris too with their own Great Strides page and their own walks in NJ and NC!! THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SPONSORED THEM!!!

BIG THANKS to my fellow Kohl's associates for volunteering their time to go to FOUR "Associates In Action" events at CiCi's Pizza so far and raising $2,000!!! YEA!! Our goal is to raise $5,000 by the end of Summer:) After the walk next Sat, we will be 1/2 way there:) Gotta LOVE KOHL'S and their AWESOME employee's;)!!!

I hope everyone has a very Happy Mother's Day, esp my fellow CF mamma's...squeeze those kids a little bit tighter, even if they don't want it...they have to, it's YOUR DAY:)!!!

M

PS. May is CF awareness month, so I've been doing "31 day's of CF" on Facebook if anyone wants to follow. I post a little bit about CF everyday:) I may post them all on here eventually:)

Productive Day!! :)

Ahhhhh if feels so good to be back in the fundraising mode again!! That is....only when the kids aren't around driving me nuts and I can actually get some stuff done!! ;-) LOL! Chris took the kids out for a drive and some lunch while I made calls.

Chris and I both had off today, so we tried to get as much done as we could for the walk today. Oma came over to help too...thanks Oma!

Here's what got accomplished today:

1. Made all my calls about getting food and entertainment for the walk. Now it's just the waiting game of waiting to hear back from them before I call them again;) lol



2. Found out how we can get electricity for the pavilion this year



3. Got letterhead ready to get Pat Catan's to do a craft at the walk



4. Clear Picture gave us the okay to do another commercial for our walk this year AND they are going to not only play it in Wooster, but they are going to play it in the Massillon area too! YEA!!! I also got a couple of pics from Heather, who has 2 kids with CF, that I am going to put in the commercial!! Now Chris and I just have to find some quite time so we can record it...that's not always easy with 2 screaming kids;-) lol



5. The Daily Record is going to print something up in the newspaper over the next couple of days about the walk and then will do a full article with a pic closer to the walk date



6. Dropped off some flyers at the pediatricians(they always keep them at the check-out window for me:)



7. Worked on making new flyers for the tables at my fundraisers, just need to print them now. Chris fancied them up with a picture this year:) YEA!!



8. Got form for fruit donation, just need to drop it off at Buehler's soon



9. Got some raffle prizes from Red Lobster, Applebee's, BW3's, and Tractor Supply & Company.



10. Best of all......I FINALLY GOT A GREAT PIC OF LIL' CHRIS DOING HIS VEST!!! Now I can put that on ALL my fundraising stuff:) YEA!!!! Boy was that rough!! It really takes both me and my husband to accomplish this! I snap away while my husband stands near me and tries to make him laugh or smile. Thanks Honey for helping me out so much today!! I couldn't have done a lot of this stuff without your help!!!

I was also able to get this great pic for the new header pic for the blog;) I love it b/c he always does this whenever one of his hoses pops out... he uses it like a hairdryer:) LOL
So, I feel MUCH better knowing that I got a lot accomplished today for the walk!! I can take a deep breath of relief;-)

Some more good news....Chris and I can't remember Lil' Chris coughing at all today!! That's a GREAT sign!! Maybe his cough IS going away all on it's own!!! Only 15 more days til his next CF clinic visit at Children's Hospital!!

Please keep Lil' Chris in your prayers...they are definitely working!!!

Thanks,
M
PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SIS-IN-LAW STEPHANIE!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Venting / 1st Fundraiser of 2011 Coming Up

YEA!!! I got my first sponsor!! Thank You Aunt Mar!!!! You won the 1st sponsor of 2011 award;-)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I've updated my Great Strides video with a couple of new pics, but kept the rest the same. If I had the time and energy, I would redo the whole thing, but my plate is kinda full at the moment. I made a list of all that I have to do to get ready for the walk, my fundraisers, and to get raffle prizes ...and....well...it's a lot!

Organizing a walk takes a lot of effort and time. Something I don't have either of right now. I don't have the time that I used to anymore, b/c Chris and I are hardly ever home together anymore. When it's just me and the kids, I can't seem to get anything done b/c they just want to play with Mommy instead of Mommy "working." I hate that I have to tell them, "Mommy has to get some work done right now, I'll play with you when I'm done." I feel like that's all I say to them at this time of year, b/c if I'm not busy "working" on the walk or fundraising, then I'm busy "working" on the laundry or dishes or vacuuming or cleaning and organizing their drawers and closets for the change in sizes and season!! I do all this AFTER working a full time job!! Oh yeah, and my back still hurts;(

Not only do I have a list of fundraising stuff, but I have a list of other things that need done around the house too that I just can't seem to get to or have the energy for... like take everything out of the fridge and clean it, steam the hardwood floors, make some sense of our messy basement, clean out my own drawers and closet, clean out the junk drawers, etc....

I think I get like this every year right before my first fundraiser, b/c there is so much work. I have to make new flyers, new poster, new signs, get raffle prizes, etc. Once I get that first one done, then the next ones are a breeze. It's just all so overwhelming right now!! I think that's why I don't have the energy! This time of year, I wish my husband was a stay at home dad so that he could help by doing all the day to day chores, so that I could concentrate on fundraising since he doesn't seem to want to do that kind of stuff, but not too many guys do;) LOL

I know I'm just stressed out now, but once I get more things for the walk and my first fundraiser done and more donations, I'll feel a lot better:) Luckily I'm the type of person that can walk into work and forget about all my stress at home. I "leave it at the door" as they say;-) Many coworkers didn't even know my son had a fatal disease until I did our first A-team(AIA) event for Cystic Fibrosis when he was about 1 year old! I'm not one to talk much about my personal life at work, I'm one to work and see what I can make better:)

Thanks again to Aunt Mar for starting us off this year, and thank you to Panera Bread for donating 100 bagels for the walk this year!!! This makes me start to feel better:) YEA!!

Join us for our first fundraiser of the year on Monday, March 21st at CiCi's Pizza in Wooster between 5pm and 8pm to help find a CURE for Cystic Fibrosis!!! There will be a raffle for a 1 hour massage at Tips, Toes, and Beyond, and a percentage of your receipt will go towards a CURE!!

Thanks for letting me vent, I needed that;) LOL
M
PS. Lil' Chris' cough seems to be getting better, so thank you to everyone for all your prayers:) We started potty training Ayla this past Saturday night, and she hadn't gotten any stickers on her chart(actually gone peepee on the potty) until Monday night. Hopefully she trains faster than Lil' Chris:-)

Walking for a Cure for CF Today!!

Here is another photo from our lunch yesterday with Daddy. Lil' Chris and I are wearing our matching CF shirts:) Sorry the pic is a little dark;)

TODAY IS THE BIG DAY!! IT HAS FINALLY COME!!

We are meeting at the pavilion next to Ida Sue School by the soccer fields at 9am!! If you would like to join us, but are not registered...that's ok! Come on down for some fun:) The address is 266 Oldman Road.

So far I don't think it is raining. Please pray that it holds off until after our walk is over!! If it does rain, I think we will be ok. I bought some extra crafts for the kids to do for Conner and I got Domino's to have the pizza's ready by 10am. Do you think pizza at 10:30 in the morning is too early??? LOL I think it will give us something to do in the rain, plus then people can leave earlier, b/c I'm sure they will be anxious to leave if we are all crammed under one pavilion:) lol

As of right now, my team is at $4,726!! Woo Hoo!! My goal is $5,000. Hopefully after today we will be closer to that goal if not surpass it;)

Thank you again everyone who has donated!! You are saving some really awesome precious lives;-) Thank You!!

It's not too late to donate...click this link to donate today... http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/LilChrisChris6765

I think we've got everything ready to go for today...

Alma and her team has made a ton of yummy cookies

Mary picked up the Frito Lays lil' bags of Chips

My hubby picked up the Culligan's water

and as soon as the sitter gets here, I am going to pick up the fruit from Buehler's,

bagels from Panera Bread,

and ice from Speedway.

Then starting at 10am, my hubby will start picking up the pizza's starting with Domino's, then Pizza Pan at 10:30, and then Papa John's.

Then he will pick up 30 kids meals from McDonald's at 11am:) YEA!!

Everything has been donated by our AWESOME sponsors!!! Thank You Awesome Sponsors=) Our walk couldn't be a success without you:)

I'll let you know how everything goes. I'll try to take lots of pics, especially everyone who is wearing something red for Conner and Eva:) Also, I plan on taking a BIG group pic for next years commercial:)

Pray for a GREAT day!

M