Leah in the Media

updated to include CHCH news story

For those of you who have not yet seen the articles here are the links that I have been able to find

St. Catharines Standard
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2012/07/17/looking-for-answers-for-leah

and the Niagara Falls Review ran the same story
http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/2012/07/17/looking-for-answers-for-leah.

and since I can't seem to find an online version of the story in the Tribune here is a copy (I hope it looks better on your computer than it does on my laptop screen! )

Niagara News in both St. Catharines and Welland will be printing their story in Thursday's edition.

I chatted on air with Tom McConnell on 610CKTB on Tuesday morning and we have just found out I will be chatting with the Giant FM morning show team on Thursday morning!  Good golly all this may start going to our heads.  What would my diva demands be probably something to do with chocolate, and Leah?  I think her diva-ness would show itself in requests for manicures!

Publicity for the Benefit

Leah's Summer Bash Fundraising Benefit has finally gotten some much needed publicity!  On Saturday afternoon, a reporter from the Welland Tribune came to the house for an interview and to take some pictures.

We talked about all the wonderful people and businesses in and around our community that have helped us and donated to Leah's campaign.  We talked about Leah's history and her struggle and how the wait times for medical services have impacted her. We focused on the positives of it all - the help we have received, the benefits of going to the Mayo Clinic and our plans to pay forward all of these kindnesses.

If we are lucky, the story will focus on Leah's struggle and the benefit and not on local hospital services.  Hopefully the surrounding newspapers will pick it up and run it as well, and *fingers crossed* that will bring more people to the benefit and/or the blog.  Keep an eye on the paper on Monday or Tuesday, that is when we were told to expect it to be printed!

Ten More Days!

10 DAYS!

 The Summer Bash Fundraising Benefit for Leah is happening in 10 days!

So much to do!

Here's another sneak peek a some of the prizes and auction items

•  -Niagara Helicopters gift certificate 
•  -Hotel and breakfast package 
•  -Restaurant gift certificates 
•  -LCBO gift card

Lots more to come, something to tickle everyone's fancy!

If you are interested in purchasing tickets, remember, there are 7 ways to get your tickets, contact me and I will help you decide which method best meets your needs.

The thermostat is rising inside and outside!

Silly little piece of trivia....the next time someone views the blog our visit counter and our fundraising total will be the same!

Couple of fantastic things to report on today

• Our middle daughter Hannah brought home from school (and forgot to give me!) some money raised by her friends Gina and Jenna C.  These two wonderful girls raised $55 for Leah - we are so grateful girls!  Thanks for your hard work.

• Kay's Korner Variety asked us to come and empty out the Loonies for Leah jar they had on the counter - once counted there was a whopping $203.97 inside!  Thank you to all the Kay's customers who have been so generous!

• We now have a 7th way to purchase tickets for the Summer Bash Benefit for Leah - Kay's Korner Variety at 150 Thorold Rd., Welland have very generously offered to sell the tickets for us, so if you need a loaf of bread, newspaper, some lottery tickets and a couple tickets to the benefit, drop by Kay's to scratch all those items off your shopping list!

Garage Sale an AMAZING Success!

To every single person who stopped by the garage sale yesterday!  So many people asked about Leah, paid more than they had to, dropped extra money in the Loonies for Leah jar, took the flyers and cards to pass along to their friends.  And to the wonderful people who couldn't find anything to buy but pressed money into my hand or into the jar to help Leah, your kindness and generosity is greatly appreciated!

To all the the people who donated items for the garage sale; whether it was household goods, books, tables for it all to go on, baked goods, hot dogs and condiments: some of you friends or family, some of you I don't even know.  The generosity you have all shown is humbling and overwhelming.  The stunning success of the garage sale could not have happened without you!

Special thank yous to some very special people who went above and beyond to help us out:

Peggy - for all your hard work before we set up, for the loan of the tables, for your help picking up items, for baking the dog biscuits, for the sorting and arranging you did and your help at clean up.  For taking the time to take pictures for me and putting them on a CD for us.  If I have missed anything you did please know that every bit of help you gave us made the day even more successful and took a lot of weight off my shoulders!


Tara, Jeff and Abby Etling - for the tables, the donations, the baked goods you delivered, your help sorting cleaning, setting up and working the garage sale a huge thank you!)


To Karen (the Etling family's neighbour)  We have never even met, but you sent so many items for the bake table - all of which were sold and sold quickly!  Thank you for all the time and effort and your amazing generosity!



MaryLou Crumb and family - thank you for the hotdogs, condiments and generous donation!  It was so nice to finally meet you at the garage sale!


To two of my favourite people in the world Geoff and Joann Male, the awe inspiring amount of items you donated, your help, advice, love and support; THANK YOU SO MUCH!


Kris, Bernie, Sara and Megan Tessier - for staying up late the night before baking, for ransacking your house to bring donation items, for working at the garage sale, and everything you do every day to help Leah and I, you have our heartfelt thanks!


Valerie Azotini - for all the items you brought, for soliciting your friends and bringing even more and for all your help the day of the sale, a big thanks!


Stephanie May - for bringing all the contributions and the big tables, we really really appreciated it all!

To my wonderful family, Mom, Dad, Anne, Brandon, Amanda, Matthew, Christopher, Teresa, Paul, Connor, Bethany and Hannah.  For the hours and hours you spent helping us, the blood, sweat and yes, even tears that flowed, the aching feet, ankles and backs, for every broken nail, every hug, every giggle, laugh and spray of coke, for turning your vehicles into moving vans, for spreading the word, FOR EVERY LITTLE THING YOU DID TO HELP US, Leah and I offer you our humblest and sincerest gratitude.

and here is the part you have all been waiting for....

THE GRAND TOTAL raised at the Garage Sale/BBQ is     $1105!

 

 

 

 

SAVE THE DATE!

July 21st is the date for Leah's Fundraising Event!  There will be food, drinks, games, silent auction, 50/50 tickets.  We are looking into music and all sorts of things to make it a "must attend event!"

More details will follow soon - but mark July 21st on your calendar!

The Support just keeps pouring in!

Just when I started to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work still to be done, the days flying by and the uncertainty of it all, I received a few text messages.

1st text - Kays Variety on Thorold Rd in Welland, has agreed to place a Loonies For Leah jar on their counter!  Thank you so much!

2nd text - My good friend Alex took bags of Leah's Angels to work with her, and she sold a bunch!  So a big thank you to the staff of Re/Max Niagara Realty.

3rd text - My husband texted me to let me know his employer Telecom Computers has offered their help as well!  Thank you Mr. Davidson and the employees of Telecom Computer!

All of this plus the offers of donations for the garage sale, requests for angels and the emails and messages being sent to us offering help and support - simply wonderful!  We are truly blessed!

Watch for Leah in the news!  I am lucky to be friends with the owners of Chimpanzee - a creative communications agency.  

They have very generously offered to assist us with a "media campaign" to get Leah's story out to the public.  With their help, we will be able to reach a broader range of people and companies for assistance, but also, just as important if not more so, it will get Leah's struggle with the health care system into the news and  get people talking.

The Countdown is On!

In my head I keep thinking, we've got over two months to pull this all together, but looking at the countdown clock, we have 58 days!  Fifty-eight days to get all the insurance paperwork filled out, signed, and signed off by doctors, bureaucrats, and the powers-that-be.  Fifty-eight short days to raise the funds to even make this possible.  Yikes! Might need a stiff drink to get over the shock of that!

On the good news front, I had a bunch of girls over yesterday and somehow between all the giggling, screaming, eating, and rolling and bouncing of beads we made 200 angels!  A very big thanks to Gina, Avalon, Megan, Camille and Kaitlyn for spending your day off school with us!

Another special thank you goes out to Domenic's Diner at the corner of Merrittville Hwy and Hwy 20.  They very graciously agreed to place a "Loonies for Leah" donation jar on their counter! 

And to the ladies of Telecom Computers...thanks for buying so many angels!  I will re-stock Paul's supplies if you are interested in more.  :)

 

One week until the fundraiser garage sale.  If people doing their spring cleaning come across items you wish to contribute to the garage sale, just let me know and we can set up a time and date to have it picked up or dropped off!

If anyone would like a "Loonies for Leah" jar to place at their business or some Angels just let me know and we will arrange that as well.

As always

 to everyone for all the help, prayers and thoughts.  We couldn't do it without you!

Our First Donation!

A very big thank you to Darlene Lisle for being the first person to purchase a Leah's Angel!  In fact she bought two and gave a very generous donation, thank you again!

Leah's Angels are now officially on sale!  If you would like some to sell to friends, families, coworkers, please let me know.  We currently have the packaged into baggies containing 10 small angels and 5 large angels, their suggested donation is $1 and $2.

Due to some "extreme couponing" on my part, I have managed to accumulate 100 hotdogs, about 100 cans of pop and 100 freezies and fudgesicle-freezies (for under $30) to sell at the Garage Sale on June 16th!  So now I just need someone to donate the buns and condiments and we will be all set!  Anyone have connections with a grocery store??

Our middle daughter Hannah has been working with her friends on selling crafts at school and she is proud to announce that they have raised $36 so far!  Special thanks to Hannah, Annalynn, Gina, Camille, Katlyn, Sierra, Annalise, Avalon, Mikeala, Taylor, Erin and any other friends I forgot to mention!  :)

And to our wonderful friends and family who are working so hard to spread the word among their friends, you have our eternal gratitude!

Fundraisers gearing up!

A wonderful family friend has approached all the Catholic high school principals in our area asking them to participate in a Loonies for Leah event.  The event could be a special dress down day, a "buy out" day where they get to pay money to get out of last period, or something else that they come up with.  She also reached out to the principles of our family of Catholic elementary schools asking them to participate somehow too.  As well, friends of hers have offered to have Loonies for Leah jars put at their businesses!  So I am creating a flyer type letter to have along side the jars and will be sending along copies of the business card I created encouraging people to come to the website.

A wonderful little girl named Gina from Leah's school will be selling her handmade crafts at a garage sale this weekend with the proceeds going towards the Minnesota trip.  God continues to bless us with wonderful friends and we are so thankful!

Everyone in the Niagara area, please keep June 16th available, my mother will be hosting a fundraiser garage sale, lemonade stand, Leah's Angels table and (possibly)BBQ.  If you have clutter lying around your house that you would like to donate towards this event, please let me know, I will pick it up or it can be dropped off at my house.  We will also be debuting these banners that I made at Vistaprint.ca  I LOVE that site!  :)

Leah's Appointment Schedule and Fundraising Update

Can you believe it?  They have already sent us a preliminary schedule of the first couple of days of Leah's visit!.

August 7, 2012 - Tuesday
	Urine Test
7:45 AM	Dr. Amie E. Jones, Consultation
10:30 AM	Chest X-ray
11:00 AM	Electrocardiogram
August 8, 2012 - Wednesday
7:00 AM	Blood Tests
7:45 AM	Autonomic Test
12:00 PM	Electroencephalogram (EEG)
August 9, 2012 - Thursday
8:45 AM	Kristi R. Luenzmann, M.A., L.P, Office Visit Department of Psychiatry and Psychology
2:45 PM	Dr. S. Kotagal, Consultation Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine

They have been in contatct with me via email, they also want to do a repeat MRI to follow up on the "abnormality" noted on her previous one.  Her first MRI found "evidence of nonspecific peritrigonal white matter changes."  We were told at the time that it wasn't a big deal, most people over the age of 50 have some sort of white matter change due to TIAs, migraines etc.  That never really sat well with me, so I am glad they plan on doing another one to see if there have been any changes.

On the fundraising front, things are full speed ahead.  Letters have been sent off to Doctors, Green Shield (our benefits provider), some Service Groups, Leah's school and a couple of other places.  Personal contact has been made with others.

My wonderful girls have been holding playground meetings and coming up with some plans of their own.  I hear there are keychains, bookmarks, necklaces and bracelets in the works.  Many school friends are bringing crafting supplies to school, hunkering down on recesses and lunches and crafting up a storm for Leah!  And they are very proud to announce that they already have some orders!

At home, we are busy creating Leah's Angels.

We hope to sell these in the school, garage sale, friends and family, Facebook, maybe a store will sell them at the cash register, I see no limits!  :)  A week from now is a school holiday, the girls will have their friends over and we are going to have an "Angel Making Bee".  I am sure there will be beads flying everywhere, but we will get lots done!  Many hands make light work, and they have all been so eager to pitch in and help.  We truly are blessed to have so many wonderful friends - big and small!

Another friend is pitching a "Loonies for Leah" drive at her work!  How awesome would that me if it caught on at other workplaces!?!?

As always, thanks for your thoughts, prayers and kind words.  The emails, phone calls and notes are so appreciated.