It is Sunday morning and I am fully re-cooperated from the evening. Relay For Life was a HUGE success in my opinion. Our team, which was not bolstered by corporate contributions, was the top fund raising team for the event… period!!! To top it off, I raised the most money for the event as an individual. My final tally was $3,110. Thanks to ALL of you out there who contributed financially to me, my team and the overall success of this event. It means a lot to me to know that people are still supporting me in my mission to be part of the eventual cure for this disease.
It was a bitter sweet night for me and a roller coaster of emotions. I experienced unbelievable highs of knowing how successful we were in raising money, looking over the enormous turnout we had for our team and knowing Julie was smiling down on us from above as we continued in her spirit of fighting back against cancer as she surely would have been doing if she were here physically. I also experienced the lows of not having Julie there with me. The survivor walk was tough as she was not part of that group, and speaking honestly, I felt anger and jealousy as I watched this group make the lap… why was Julie not walking with them this year as she did last year?
However, the biggest low of the evening was felt during the luminaria ceremony because her absence was magnified. Everything shuts down, the moonwalk is powered down, the music stops and the park becomes quiet. It is a time of prayer, remembrance and reflection for those whom we have lost and those that are in a fight for their life. This ceremony is culminated by a lap around the path led by two bagpipers playing “Amazing Grace” and a balloon release. Both Hallie and Jack whispered a message to their respective balloons, gave it a kiss and sent it up to Mommy.
Interesting note… Jack’s favorite color is green and when the lady handed him a balloon, I was sure it was purple. Jack started to whine that he “really wanted a green one” which is strange because he also thought it was a different color. I tried to explain to him that we just had to be happy with he got. He finally accepted it, when I looked up at the balloon and noticed that it was in fact GREEN. Was it green the whole time??? Probably, but I think that, just maybe, Julie changed it.
After the Luminaria ceremony we popped a couple bottles of Champagne and raised a glass to Julie to celebrate her life and her legacy.
Many thanks to all who attended as well and helped to keep our baton out on the track from 6 pm on Friday until the close of the Relay at 6 am the following day. Our baton was one of the few that never left the track. This is a VERY BIG DEAL to me. As Julie battled Cancer and never complained about the treatment, the pain the inconveniences, I feel that it is a small task to stay awake all night one night per year and keep the baton out on the track and never let it come off.
Thanks to Mr. Ricky for bringing the teens from our church out to help keep enough people on hand through the wee hours of the morning in order to keep our baton on the track. Thanks to the teens for coming out to take part in such a special event. Thanks to my sis-in-law Angie for spear heading the event. Thanks to April M and the rest of the Girl Scout troop for organizing their own showing at the event. Thanks to Freddie, whom I work with who stayed from the beginning to the end with us. Thanks to those who travelled long distances to be here (and those who tried to get here but at the last minute could not). Thanks to those like Carrie Batt and Jen Kerber who raised funds for us but could not attend. Many people contributed in many special ways and I do not mean to leave anyone out but the list goes on and on. So to all of you who were a part of this in some small way, I am humbled by your generosity and grateful for your love and support.
I leave you with a few pics from the event. If you were in attendance and have pictures, I would love to have copies of them for my album. To see all the photos I currently have, please click here.
YAY GOD!-Brendan
