Don't think you can help raise money for the IWSA?
Sure you can, we did!
|
Last year we decided we needed to do something for this great organization to help off set some of the cost that goes into making the IWSA operate. So, I shot an email to our family and friends, challenging them to help us raise at least $500 to take to WAGR Weekend in Michigan. I also sent a few letters out to our employers and told them how the IWSA has helped us since Hayden was born. To our surprise we went way over our goal of $500 and raised $1,800 for the IWSA.
As we came home from WAGR Weekend I was very proud that we got to give back. It made me feel really good. I said to my husband, "You think we can do even better next year?" "We can try!” he said. So, once again this year I sent an email to our family and friends and wrote letters. I knew with the economy the way it is our chances of reaching our goal to go over $1,800 was going to be hard.
We decided to do a sub sale to help us achieve our goal. It was so easy to do. I just called the local deli, picked a date, made an order form, put the forms at our places of employment, friends offered to help and we ended up selling 261 subs and profited $482. I hardly did anything!
In the end, we went over our goal and raised $2000 for the IWSA. I, of course, could not present the money at WAGR Weekend in Maryland without lots of tears. I get very emotional when I think about how the money is going to be used. The money will put a newsletter in the hands of a new gorilla mom who is scared of what the future holds for her child. It will also help offset the costs of the IWSA website for that new mom to look up medical information, which she can give to her child's doctors who have never seen a patient with WAGR Syndrome before. It could also help that same mom get her family to WAGR Weekend so she can feel the amazing bond in person that she has with other families she met on our e-mail WAGR discussion group.
If just asking for a donation will help a new mother feel "less alone" in WAGR World, then I'll do again. I remember that feeling.......don’t you?
Julie Dell, proud mama to Hayden born with WAGR syndrome
|
|
