Some Background
As many of you know, Sarhea is our first grandchild. She was born on October 2, 2007 with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease that affects the respiratory system, the digestive system, and other vital internal organs. At this time there is no cure for CF and the life expectancy today is 37.4 years. Please visit
cff.org to learn more about Cystic Fibrosis.
Sarhea spent the first five months of her life in Cincinnati Children's Hospital due to an intestinal blockage at birth and an emergency intestinal surgery she had at 2-days old. She had to have a foot of her intestine removed and a temporary ostomy bag attached while her intestine would heal. Please visit CarePage
"SarheaSunshine" for that period of time in our life.
Sarhea's re-attachment surgery took place on December the 13, 2007. In addition to re-attaching her intestine they also performed a surgical procedure called a
Nissen Fundoplication, and installed a G-Tube in her abdomen.
A few days before Sarhea's re-attachment surgery, I had a long conversation with her CF doctor about Cystic Fibrosis, what we can do to help and what hope there is for a cure. I was told that the only hold-up for a cure is money. She (Sarhea's doctor) said the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is making tremendous progress toward a cure but they need everyone they can get to help raise funds for desperately needed research and development of treatments.
I immediately looked up the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and saw there was a chapter right here in Cincinnati. I contacted them right away and set up a time to meet with the director Lori Lobsiger. Teri and I met with Lori and learned about setting up a fund raising team and got some different ideas as to what other families and teams are doing to raise money. Later that night Teri and I set up team Sarhea Sunshine.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's purpose and mission is to improve the quality and quantity of life for those that have this devastating genetic disease, and someday develop a cure. Team Sarhea Sunshine has decided to do what we can to help.
Team Sarhea Sunshine 2008
Team Sarhea Sunshine actually began at the end of December of 2007. We had approximately 120 Sarhea Sunshiners walk in the 2008 Great Strides Walk and we raised approximately $18,000.00 in 2008 through the Great strides Walk and various fund raising events.
I want thank all of the awesome team Sarhea Sunshine members who worked hard and diligently to raise money toward a cure, I would also like to thank the following businesses who had fund raising events for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation thru Sarhea Sunshine:
Chick-Fil-A (Tower Mall),
Bella Hairstyles (Mt. Washington),
Head First Sports Cafe (Downtown) and
Texas Roadhouse (Milford).
I would also like to extend a deep appreciation to the several businesses that made financial contributions and donated gifts for raffles and silent auctions. These contributors include
Peter Paul Office Equipment, Los Cabos (Amelia),
Frisch's /
Golden Corral Restaurants,
Smokey Bones (Cherry Grove),
Victory Lady Health Spas,
Buffalo Wild Wings (Ohio Pike), Mike's Car Wash (Cherry Grove), Johnny's Car Wash (Anderson), Mt. Washington Jewelers,
Red Lobster (Kenwood and Ohio Pike), Koch's Sporting Goods,
Lowe's (Beechmont), Krogers (Anderson & Amelia),
Walmart Eastgate,
Cincinnati Reds,
Cincinnati Bengals, Towerview Sports Pub (Mt. Washington),
First Watch (Anderson),
Graeters Ice Cream,
El Coyote (Anderson),
HyTech Automotive, Beacon Food Mart, Budweiser, Coke and some who wish to remain anonymous.
I would also like to thank Randy Amann, "The Picken' Pig" for the music he provided at the Bella "Cuts For a Cure" benefit, and the
"Infinity Ball" for the awesome music provided at the Head First Benefit. Aslo a special thank you to "Gapper" for his guest appearance at the Head First benefit.
Thanks to all of the tremendous generosity and hard work of everyone that contributed time, talent, gifts and money, 2008 was a very successful first year for team Sarhea Sunshine supporting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Again we collectively raised approximately $18,000.00 toward a cure. Every dollar raised is extremely important not only to the tens of thousands who have this fatal disease, but also to the hundreds of thousands of family members and friends who are affected by it, and the 10+ million carriers of the defective gene.
Team Sarhea Sunshine 2009
Please join or re-join team Sarhea Sunshine today. Everyone wants to do something good for someone else at sometime in their life. By joining team Sarhea Sunshine and raising funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation you are doing something good for our Sarhea as well as the thousands upon thousands that are affected by CF, plus the thousands upon thousands that are yet to be born with it.
With the economy in the state it is in we have a tremendous challenge set before us for 2009. Or do we? It's interesting but hard times doesn't mean we should go into it thinking people won't give. There's only three bottom line reasons why a person will not donate to a charity.
1) They're not asked to give.
2) They don't want to give.
3) They don't have the money to give.
These same three reasons also apply when the economy is good. On the other hand, there's a good reason someone will give, and that's to help someone else.
The way I look at it is this, If you don't ask someone for a donation, you have a 100% chance not to get one. If you do ask, you have a 50% chance to get one. The amount of the donation is irrelevant. Remember every dollar and cent counts. One of the most memorable donations we received last year was only $2.00. That $2.00 was part of the $18,000. That $2.00 was a blessing!
We are planning on having some fun events for 2009 as we did in 2008. We're looking at what we did in 2008 and trying to see how we can do things better for 2009. We made some very good friends and contacts along the way and are getting some ideas together to go on. Please feel free to contribute ideas and volunteer to help.
I will be posting some event and fund raising ideas in the weeks to come.
Thank you for visiting our Sarhea Sunshine Blog and I promise the upcoming post will not be so long.
