McKinley is doing great. Loving school, loving gymnastics, really living a mostly normal three year old life (with the exception of waking her nightly for oral chemo, giving five oral chemo pills every Tuesday & another medication on the weekends & then of course her in office chemo treatments (monthly) & Lumbar puncture procedures which happen every 57 days). She's thriving, growing, and we are feeling so very blessed. This month though instead of talking about my sweet girl I'm gonna speak about this AMAZING group.
This past Saturday night the Lakewood Ranch Moms Group held a gala benefiting Love McKinley, Inc. (our non for profit that is providing funds to Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital & financial assistance to local families who have been affected by pediatric cancer). It was a very big undertaking as we had never set up an event like this before. To say it was a success would be a complete understatement. The brainchild of Alana Medlin Blasewitz & Jill Bennett became reality and then everything fell into place. Daily Eats went above and beyond with food and their staff was so accommodating, fun and easy to work with. Please stop by Daily Eats if you're in the UTC area! This gala was open to the public but 90% of the guests were in the Mom's group. A group that is made up of over 200+ Moms. Just over 200 guests attended this gala (mostly couples). Over $23,500 was raised for #LoveMcKinley and $450 was raised for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation! WHAT?!? I have been a mess of emotions since this event. Women who most I know, some I just met and some are strangers giving to our cause and making a difference in something that is held so close to my heart. I'm blown away. The YEAR goal for the LWRMG (as Love McKinley, Inc is their chosen charity this year) was $10,000. WE BLEW THAT AWAY IN ONE NIGHT. Thank you to ALL who attended, donated, helped with set up, during the event, etc. We hands down couldn't of pulled off this great event without you. To think I just moved to this little town about 3 years ago & joined this group about 2 & 1/2 years ago. McKinley was diagnosed a short 15 mths later. The fact I have met such amazing, giving, kindhearted people is something I cherish more than words can express. I have a close friend who refers to this group as the #momarmy as we are a bunch of strong, like-minded, opinionated moms. Well I'll take this army in battle any day. {Through tears...again...}Thank you thank you thank you!!!