Lily's Garden at RMH

Thanks to all of Emily's great friends in her book club, a special area in the gardens of the Ronald McDonald House in Cleveland will be utilized in a very special way. A special garden in memory of our daughter Lily has been planned. The ladies in Emily's book club came up with the idea shortly after Lily passed away. Now that the weather has finally started to warm up (somewhat) it's time to roll up our sleeves and get a little dirty. This Saturday, members of Emily's book club, some family members, and some friends will be meeting at the Ronald McDonald House in Cleveland to begin working on Lily's Garden. This will be a permanent garden on the grounds of the Ronald McDonald House. This garden will be a place where families can relax and have fun and watch their children play while they visit or are staying at the Ronald McDonald House. There will be tons of beautiful plants and flowers in the garden and much more. The above picture is of the grounds as they currently look. We plan on turning this spot into a colorful, fun outdoor area just as Lily would have wanted. Check back next week for pictures of the garden after we get our hands dirty this Saturday. For more information on the Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland, please visit:
http://www.clevelandrmh.org/

Fundraiser at Tailgators

This past Saturday we held an event at Tailgators Sports Bar to help raise money to aide families that have a child with a Congenital Heart Defect. We held a Silent Auction, a 50/50 raffle, and a special raffle for a set of Club Level tickets to a Cleveland Indians game. The night was a huge success. Emily and I had been trying to raise money for the past two months for the Congenital Heart Information Network's "Circle of Hearts" campaign. We had a fundraising goal of $5000.00 and as of a month ago, it didn't seem like we would even come close to that. Thanks to the event we participated in at the Winking Lizard and the fundraiser at Tailgators, I am pleased to announce we had met and surpassed our goal of $5000.00. In fact, we raised almost $5000.00 alone at the event at Tailgators. The event was a huge success and I think everyone had a lot of fun too. We raised a lot of money for a great cause but we also raised awareness on CHD's. We also got to share Lily's story with lots of people. I only can hope that Lily somewhere knows how many lives she has touched. Our little girl has inspired us to try to reach out and help other families in need. We have donated the money from the Indians ticket raffle, the 50/50 raffle, and other flat donations to our Circle of Hearts fundraising site for Lily. If you visit the site you will see we have now surpassed our goal. Once we have all the money from the silent auction in, we are going to the majority of it for a donation to the Congenital Heart Information Network's "Spencer Fund". Spencer's Fund directly helps families in need who are dealing with a child that has been effected by a CHD. Many of these families are spending countless hours in hospitals while there child is trying to recover from major heart surgery. Some of these families are having difficulty paying bills and providing for their other children. We are also donating a portion to the F.E.E.L. program at Fairview Hospital. The F.E.E.L. program (Families Experiencing Early Loss) did a great job taking care of us while Emily was still in the hospital recovering after Lily had passed away. That program helped us when we needed it the most so we are more then happy to repay the kindness. Emily and I want to thank everyone who particpiated in some way with our event at Tailgators and we want to thank everyone who participated in our fundraiser for Lily over the past few months. We could never have reached our goals if it was not for the generosity of all of you!