Monday, September 14, 2009

Fundraiser

On August 22nd my siblings and I held a fundraiser to raise money for our Dad's cancer treatment. When my Dad found out he had cancer he imediatly starting researching his different options of treatment. He decided the best treatment for him would be at a place in Atlanta Georgia. The only problem that they kept coming across was the money they would have to pay for this treatment out of pocket. When it came down to it that was the ONLY thing keeping him from getting the treatment. We told my parents not to worry about the money. We wanted our Dad to get the treatment that he needed and we felt money should not be the reason he doesn't. We told them that we would do whatever we needed to so he could go to Georgia
Honestly I thought we were going to have to do this fundraiser, a fundraiser dinner, a yard sale and anything else we could think of doing. We decided to start with a fundraiser day and then go from there. All I did for 6 weeks straight was prepare for the fundraiser. I had SO MANY people help me with so much. In that 6 weeks I learned a lot. One of the things that touched me so much was I got to see how kind and giving people are. My friends were so willing to help without even thinking about it and even complete strangers. I had a lot of sleepless nights worrying about what I needed to do and also thinking about all of these amazing caring people so willing to help our family even if they didn't know us. Everyday we would get donations and people volunteering to help us with whatever we needed. I want to say THANK YOU. Thank you for your kind and giving hearts and for using your talents to help us. By the end of the night of the fundraiser I was so overwhelmed with gratitude (and surprised everything went so well) and I was also very ready to go to sleep. The night before I had planned on going to bed around 10 to get a good nights rest but then it was 5:30 am by the time I was done with everything and I had planned on waking up at 5:45 or 6:00 so I thought it would be best just to stay awake. There is NO WAY I could have only slept for a half hour or even a hour. It was easier just staying awake. Needless to say I was not really with it the whole day......which was probably a good thing.

Balloon Artist


Domino's Pizza



Raffle Items

Sale Items







Jamba Juice




Cotton Candy and Popcorn

Little Mae having a good time

Cold Stone

JDawgs


Tye Dye

Bounce House





Auction Items
Bake sale

Landen took all of these pictures with his cell phone since we didn't have a camera.
The day went so well! While we were planning for this we all thought that maybe we could raiser 2-3 thousand dollars (that is why we were planning on doing several other things). At the end of the night after counting the money we had raised 8,500 dollars!! My parents were in complete shock. You could instantly see a huge burden lifted from them. When all was said and done we ended up raising over 10,000 dollars. People were still sending money in the mail and giving us money. We had a goal to raise 10,ooo dollars and with the kindness of everyone we did it.
My parents are in Georgia right now and my Dad is recieving his treatments 5 times a week. They will come home right before Halloween. I am really close to my parents so it has been hard while they have been gone but I know they are where they need to be right now and I happy they can be there.
I am so thankful and feel so blessed for people charitable hearts and christ like service. This wouldn't have been possible without all of you that helped us. I just can't say thank you enough. Also thank you to all of those who came out to the fundraiser and supported us!

4 comments:

Sperry Family said...

Wow, the whole event looked awesome! I wish we could have been there. I am so happy you guys reached your goal. I wish your dad the best!

Allan and Teresa Tipton said...

Laurie, you and our other children are awesome! We are still overwhelmed with the generosity, kindness, love and support we have received through this challenging time. We are so grateful for our wonderful children, family, friends, neighbors, ward family and any others who have helped us. Through this experience we have been richly blessed. We love you.

Brandi, Dan, L and B said...

We were so sorry and sad we missed it. We were out of town at a family reunion when you held it. I am SO glad you reached your goal and that your dad was able to get the treatments he needed.

Tawnya said...

Laurie...that is absolutely awesome that you were able to raise that much money! I wish we could've come, but we were out of town. It looks like you had an awesome turn out!