Thanks so much to Judy for posting this for us. Thanks so much to everyone for the prayers and PD. Congratulations to Benji for doing the survivor lap!!!
I thought I would update ya'll by posting the email I sent out to everyone. Thanks again for everyone's prayers and support. I will post again when I know our total.
I am not sure where to start. This is always such an emotional night for me. This time it was even more emotional than before. You know everything we do is always done as a family. All five of us together - no one missing. Well Marlee Anne was sick. Running a fever, vomiting and diarrhea. I was so torn. I knew I needed to be with her but how could I miss the survivor walk with Michala? How could I miss her being an honorary chair person. Well mom and our friend Lori stayed home with Marlee Anne so that I could be at Relay. My heart was sad because we weren't all there together. I took Mary Elizabeth home to so that she would not be out in the heat. So it ended up being Mike, Michala and I. Michala LOVED all that attention. No sisters to share that with. Marlee Anne is still sick so we would really appreciate any prayers you could send her way. Thanks so much!
We had the wonderful pleasure of having one of Michala's cancer survivor friends to be part of our team. Kylie came and walked with Michala and was one of the honary chair persons with her. They had a great time together. Like we have said so many times before our choice would be for Michala to never had cancer but so many wonderful things have come from that. One being the wonderful friendships we have made. Kylie and her family have been such a blessing to us. Her mom Rachel is the first to come running when we need anything. She is always there to bring food or whatever whenever we have scans or have to be at the hospital. The bond we have with them is something that time can never erase. Kylie is already talking about next years Relay.
We had an AWESOME team this year as always. We cannot thank everyone for all their love support and hard work. We received the trophy for the "top dollar" Family and Friends team. We have been trying to reach that each year. We were so very excited to have won it. Thanks so much to everyone that helped us reach that goal. Whether you were part of our team working, made a donation, purchased items, tickets, came to the crop or whatever we appreciate it all. I am still waiting to hear what our total was. I will let ya'll know as soon as I hear.
Affordable Moonwalks donated a moonwalk, slide and carnival game for us. They raised a ton of money for our team. They are a super family. If you are ever in need of any type of inflatable thing or carnival game please contact them.
www.affordablemoonwalks.com Tracy is also a huge help each time we host a fundraising crop.
Covington Window Cleaners did an awesome job on their BBQ and boiled peanuts. A definite hit that they will have to do again next year. A wonderful group we couldn't do without!
I love and hate being team captain. I love the planning part of it. I hate the part of having to make sure everything is done that night. I hate to make sure we have someone on the track at all times. Thankfully we have team members that just jump right in and do without having to be asked! Thanks ya'll!!! I hate being busy throughout the night and not getting to visit with everyone. I really enjoy going around visiting with everyone but that doesn't always happen.
We have an awesome college group at our church. They collected an offering Friday night at their service. The brought it to Relay and donated it to Michala. They also walked together as a group. It was a wonderful sight to see.
Our queen for the Miss Relay competition won first place again this year. She was spectacular as always! She is my cousins husband and does a terrific job dressing up. She arrives early in the evening all dressed up and begins her fund raising efforts. I wish we had someone following her around with a video camera. This year the contestants only got 30 seconds so she wasn't able to perform the song she had prepared. She did a wonderful job!!! She raised $1,400. You can see her in the slide show!
Also in the slide show you will see a very special little prince in our lives. Carter celebrated his first birthday at Relay For Life with Michala. He brought wonderful cupcakes to share with everyone. It definitely added to our special night.
Right after that was announced our top fundraising team member was hurt. Grace is one that ya'll will remember from the crop. She always sales bottled water at the crop to help her reach her $100 goal. This year she also hosted a magic show which she was the star of. She raised $345 all by herself this year. She is an amazing little girl. She and some of our other team mates were playing baseball. She was accidentally hit in the mouth. For those of you that saw know how horrible it looked. There was blood everywhere. She is doing really good. Thanks for everyone thoughts and prayers about her.
We had 5 team members that stayed all night. Thanks to each of them for participating in the games. We had a lot of fun. Next year we would love to have more team members stay all night or at least sign up to come back in the middle of the night to walk. Thanks so much to everyone for all your help in making this such a wonderful year!!! We are already working on our theme for next year.
I want to thank Becky, Anita and Amie for their wonderful friendships. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to get to know them better and develop friendships with them. Thanks to them this was a great Relay For Life event.
Here is the photo show if you would like to see it.
Kelli
Relay For Life 2004 Photo Show
