Reincarnated As A Mother

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

A Night To Remember

Okay, okay, I know my title totally sounds like
a prom theme.
But I couldn't think of anything more appropriate.
Tonight was really one of those nights I will never, ever forget.
After two plus years of work, tonight we unveiled the Hall of Heroes
portraits to the families, donors, supporters and staff at St. Luke's
Children's Hospital.
 For a little background, we are about to have our 3rd Baldapalooza
to raise money for Idaho's children battling cancer.
The first year we raised money to create the Hall of Heroes--
portraits of 22 children battling cancer, complete with their
stories and words of advice for other families starting down
that horrific road.
It's been more work than you can imagine
but oh, was it ever worth it tonight to see--
 the faces of some of the parents as they saw the portraits
of their children holding photos of themselves while in the 
throes of battling cancer.
My dear friend Fabiana took this powerful picture
(and donated her time and talent to shoot all but one of
the portraits.  One of the children featured, Anthony passed
away last year).
 I particularly love this collage.
The cute as a button little girl, Shae is one of the toughest
warriors you'll ever meet.  If I remember right, she had
Stage IV Melanoma on her neck.
The darling girl next to her with glasses is Taylor.
My girls adore Taylor-- she kicked cancer's butt when she
was younger and is now working at the hospital and studying to be a nurse.
She also volunteers at Camp Rainbow Gold-- the magical organization
we are raising money for this year.
 Marnie - on the left, is the Nurse Practitioner who sees
Kean and works with all the kids with cancer.  We have grown to
love this woman through the three years we've been seeing 
her and the other doctor's at MSTI.
Zoe, in the center is the head of Special Events for the hospital--
and my lifeline as we've slogged through bringing this dream to reality.
 Finally, this is one of the few pictures I actually took.
This is of one of the cute moms-- holding the portrait
of her child she gets to take home (thanks to Framed Legacy
who donated all of our printing and framing) and a beautiful
book Fabiana put together of all of the children and their stories.
We will have all of these portraits and some of the children
on hand at Baldapalooza on August 29th.  This will be the only
time the portraits will be out in the public before being hung on the walls
in the children's Oncology Unit at the hospital.
If that's not a reason to come to Baldapalooza, I don't know what is!

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