This morning, Matt and I, Mark and Elaine, Scott and Christina Coulson and Mrs. Kishline (Chris's Mom) all participated in the TEARS annual Walk and Rock fund raising walk. We walked in to honor Parker and after last week, when friends of ours also lost their son, we decided to also walked a bit for Evan Riley Davies. I met my fund raising goal of $200 and I was so thrilled! I thought that was great for the 2 short weeks we had to raise it in. Matt actually exceeded his goal and ended up with $220! THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED SPONSOR US. We were so excited to be able to raise money for such a great cause and one that is so close to our hearts.
The day started with Matt and I heading over to Mark and Elaine's so that we could all carpool over to Safeco Field. So, we headed out extra early in order to give us plenty of time to find our way there, which was crazy because of road closures for the World Vision Rock and Roll Marathon. We did get a bit turned around, but finally made our way there just in time! We waited in line for a while to check-in and get our T-shirts and once that was all done we found our seats and settled in for the opening ceremony. After that, Matt and I went out onto the field for the Hope lap, which was just for the families who lost a baby. After that, everyone else joined in and we started walking! Close to noon, Matt and I headed to concessions for lunch and we ran into Ron! Ron was the photographer who came in and took photos of Parker and then he also took photos at the memorial service. It was so good to see him, he is a really great guy. We talked to him for at least half an hour and then headed back to the field to do some more laps. Shortly after we got back out there, everyone was called back to their seats for the closing ceremony. For that all the babies names were read and the parents of the baby would walk up and recieved a flower and were able to walk around the field one more time to pick up their butterfly. (There had been butterflies on little sticks posted all around the inside of the track and each held the name of a baby who was being walked for or who had been helped by the foundation). So, that was pretty neat.
The whole event was fairly emotional and we all had our tearful moments, but all-in-all I think it was really great to go someplace where your baby's name is spoken and their little life is acknowledged and where everyone knows the ache of a child not in your arms. Over all, there was just under $50,000 dollars raised for the tears foundation and we are so glad to have participated in this event. Definitely going on the calendar for next year!
2 comments:
How beautiful!! I'm defietly doing this with you guys next year. It touches my heart and I wasn't even there. God bless you! We love you guys!
I am so glad you guys were there to walk for Evan. That means so much to me to know that a world away, Evan was remembered by people that never got to know him personally (only through photos and posts of mine online). My Mom will be there for sure next year to walk for both our little boys and for Julia.
Post a Comment