We Got Our Roll On!

Going into our Great Strides fundraising season I wanted to try something different this year in hopes of getting more people to support our team. Each year this fundraising thing gets harder and harder. I'm sure people are so tired of me "begging" or "pleading" for donations each year for my kid that looks to be completely normal and healthy, but his insides are a mess. My son has this crazy complex disease called cystic fibrosis and it doesn't have a cure. It is a very expensive and high maintenance disease. Bryce does daily maintenance of treatments and medications to maintain his "health". Did you hear that...maintain. If he gets sick everything is kicked up a notch and could even lead to hospitalization. We never get to take a day off. He does treatments everyday...most of them are at least twice per day. Any equipment used has to be sterilized afterwards and must air dry completely before he uses it again. His vest sessions are 30 to 40 minutes each (factoring in huff cough and clearing the cough time). He takes 10 to 15 pills per day before he eats because his pancreas doesn't work properly. If he goes to spend-the-night with grandparents all this stuff goes with him. When we go on vacation all this stuff comes with us. No days off. Ever. I could keep going, but you get the point. On top of all that he does all this with a smile and rarely complains.  

He's pretty much a stud. 

Just sayin'.

So as far as fundraising goes I keep doing it because the more awareness and money raised the more research can be done and the more drugs can be produced to help prolong this community's life span.
Oh yea...the CFF doesn't receive any federal funding. They rely on donors. Donors like YOU!

Back to my point...

We decided to do a CF skate night this year and I thought it would be great to combine it with a Roswell Roller Rink reunion as well. My mom helped set the event up for me and Sparkles of Kennesaw was pretty awesome in the deal they gave us. $10.00 at the door for unlimited skating, rental and playground play with $5.00 of that going back to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation under our Team Bryce Bryce name. I've been saying for weeks now I really hope we get 100 skaters. That was my goal. 

Guess how many skaters we had show up? 

 Yes. I know my kid has on white skates. They are Jordyn's old skates and they fit so we went with it.

 His shirt has a skull and cross bones on it so I think that helps even everything out. Ha!

160!!! 

If you do the math that is 160 x 5 = $800.00!! We also had $70.00 of other donations given to us so our skate night brought in a total of $870.00. 

How amazing is that? Plus it was an absolute blast. The kids had so much fun playing laser tag and skating with their friends. Sydney had many of her soccer friends come out. Jordyn had soccer friends and one of her favorite school friends show up. Our family represented in a big way. Our neighbors joined us too. I had so much fun seeing old friends from skating and high school. One of my best friends, Amber, drove from West Virginia with her two little girls to support Bryce. I was so surprised she when walked through the door to say the least. I'm usually the one planning surprises so it was odd to be on the receiving end and I loved it! Bryan had some of his friends come and also several of his volleyballers show up. Bryce's teacher came and so did Jordyn's. It was just so awesome. It was almost like having a wedding where everyone you know and love...all the different groups of people are in one place. I had every intention of taking photos, but I got tired of carrying my heavy camera around. I found it difficult to chat with everyone and take photos so I opted to put my camera up and just enjoy our people so hence the lack of photos here.

I really can't thank everyone enough for coming out to this fun event. I'm pretty positive we will make this an annual thing. I'm going to contact the manager at Sparkles and see what we can do to go ahead and get something on the books for next year.

There were several people who donated via our team page on Saturday that couldn't make it to the skate. I am so thankful for each of you as well. I had almost $500.00 in donations come in before the skate so it goes without saying that Team Bryce Bryce Baby had a great weekend!

Our team page is showing that we are at $3105.00 currently. Add in the $4500.00 Bryan's school raised last week and the $870.00 we raised skating we are sitting at: $8475.00. Technically we reached our original fundraising goal, but I've bumped our goal to $10,000! The walk is May 17th so I KNOW we can do this!

So - with that in mind if you haven't made a donation there is no time like the present. 

Click HERE and it will take you to our fundraising page. Making a donation online is really easy, but if you prefer to write a check you can give me a call or text and I will send you my home address. We have several checks to mail into the CFF so we can mail them all at once.

We are also looking for talented walkers. Talented as in putting one foot in front of the other in a leisurely pace. We would love to have you walk with us on May 17th. The CFF even feeds you lunch afterwards! 

I have another exciting post coming soon so please stay tuned. 

It is CF related and it ties in with all of this money we are raising!!