Kaelyn's Kure: April 2011

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

First Fundraiser for Kaelyn's Kure is Big Success!!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

We just can't seem to say it enough! Our first fundraiser which took place last Thursday (4/21) was a big success! I'm blown away by the amount of people who were in attendance - we packed Jose & Tony's pretty much to the max that night! The help, support, and generosity from everyone who took part in the event really touches our hearts and our family deeply appreciates all that was done to make the event possible.

Whether you were able to make the event or made a donation towards it - THANK YOU!! We had so many wonderful raffle prizes, gift cards, and baskets to give away... actually way more than we had expected!

We hope that everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did, and we're hoping to do an annual fundraiser for Kaelyn's Kure every year before the walk! We raised $1,150 in tips alone last Thursday, and brought in an additional $1,650 from the raffles! Really, really fantastic - just shy of almost $3,000 for Team Kaelyn's Kure and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! If you've been following our team's total on the Great Strides page, you should see it jump to over $7,000 within the next few weeks once all the additional money we've collected recently posts to our team!

I'd like to give special recognition to all those who dedicated their time or made a donation to our raffle:

Jose & Tony's - Maggie O'Neill and her cousin for bartending the event, along with Kelly and Lam for helping with all the ticket sales throughout the night. The night wouldn't have been possible or as successful as it was without your help!

Citywide Garage Door Co.

Gander Mountain/Jeff Fite

Comfort Inn/Jack

Eat N Park

Snap-On

Sergio's/KaraKerns

Subway

Coors Light

Jackson's

Don Bell

Gene Ciavarra

Kristin Rost

Loni Brazen

Patty Weber

Jen Verscharen

Jamie Burgos

Jessica Nelson

Cindy Cochran

Melissa Johnston

Ashlee Starr

Rendie Settles

THANK YOU ALL AGAIN! (sorry if I missed anyone!) And thank you to everyone who took a few hours of their evening to stop in and join us to make a difference in the lives of all those affected by Cystic Fibrosis! Your donations truly do make a difference in the CF community!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Our First Fundraiser this Thursday 4/21/11

"Cheers" for a Cure at Jose & Tony's

With only a few days left before our very first fundraiser to support team Kaelyn's Kure and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, we couldn't be more excited for this event!

"Cheers" for a Cure will kick off at 7:00pm on Thursday evening at Jose & Tony's in Mt. Lebanon! We are looking forward to having a fantastic time with family, friends, and new friends as we come together to support CF! The doors are open to anyone who would like to attend, so feel free to spread the word and bring along anyone you'd like!

With the help of a lot of really wonderful people in our lives, we have put together what we believe will be a great night! Many awesome items have been donated for our Chinese Auction - including tickets to shows, gift cards, and a variety of baskets. Raffle tickets can be purchased upon arriving at the event. We also plan to have a 50/50 as well, and 100% of your bartenders tips collected will be donated to team Kaelyn's Kure and CFF!

This won't be the last time you'll hear me say this before Thursday is over, but thank you so much to all who have helped or donated to this event! Wonderful things are happening right now in the CF community with the development of new drugs and treatments for those battling CF - these amazing things are all happening because of the help and support from you! We can't thank everyone enough for their continued help in adding tomorrow's to the lives of all the children and adults fighting this battle each day!

We look forward to seeing everyone and meeting some new faces too as we raise our glasses and "Cheers" for a Cure!! C-ya on Thursday!

"Cheers" For A Cure

Thursday, April 21, 2011

7:00pm

Jose & Tony's Mexican Restaurant/Bar (Mt. Lebanon)

1573 McFarland Road

Pittsburgh, PA 15216

Much love,

Julie, Chad, and Kaelyn

Monday, April 11, 2011

Kaelyn's Puppy!

As most of you already know, we'll be adding a new family member to our household in about 8 weeks!

Kaelyn's new puppy was born last week on April 6 in a litter of 7 pups total. We plan to get a female and have 4 to choose from since we're 1st in line to pick from the girls! We couldn't be more excited and the timing of the new puppy couldn't be more perfect! We'll be able to pick her up right around Kaelyn's birthday! It will be exciting to see the 2 of them together, especially since Kaelyn already has a love for dogs!

These pups are the breed of Braque Francais aka French Pointer. Below is a pic of the new litter which we will get to pick Kaelyn's puppy from. So far we like the one on the far right with the all brown head (as long as it's a girl of course!). :-)

FIVE

The Power of a Dollar...

In the search for a cure, EVERY dollar counts! I know a lot of people think to themselves, "What's a few bucks going to do?". Each and every dollar raised towards finding a cure for CF helps add tomorrows to all those affected by CF and it provides hope for all the younger generations who are diagnosed early on in life. It doesn't take a large donation to make a difference...

"FIVE"

This year's Great Strides walk is in the month of May. May, being the 5th month of the year, is a special month for us - not just because it's when the CF walk will take place (5/22/2011) but also because it was the month Kaelyn was born (5/31/2008).

A $5.00 donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation CAN make a difference in the lives of the 30,000 children and adults living with CF in the U.S.

I'm looking for 55 people to donate $5.00 by 5/5/11 to our Great Strides team, "Kaelyn's Kure". Your donation will go directly to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to help provide a brighter future for all those affected by CF and to hopefully one day find the cure we've all been waiting for.

If you'd like to help us reach our goal of 55 people who make a $5.00 by 5/5, you can do so by clicking here which will take you our Great Strides donation page. Simple click on "Click to Donate" at the top of the page to make a safe and secure donation.

If you would like to further help us accomplish this goal, feel free to share this blog post by linking or reposting it to your Facebook, Twitter, etc. By helping, you are doing a wonderful thing which we are sincerely grateful!

Thank you for helping to "add tomorrows"!! I will keep everyone updated as to the status of our goal!

Friday, April 1, 2011

"Cheers" for a Cure - Join Us at Jose & Tony's

Please Join Us on Thursday, April 21st!

"Cheers" For A Cure

Jose & Tony's Mexican Restaurant/Bar

Supporting Kaelyn's Kure & the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

What better way to support a wonderful cause and add tomorrow's to all of those affected by Cystic Fibrosis than by having some fun?!? Please join us as we "Cheers" For A Cure and come together for a night of fun, family, and friends to raise awareness towards Cystic Fibrosis.

The event will take place at Jose & Tony's Mexican Restaurant/Bar - Our friend Maggie, along with her cousin, will be coordinating a variety of fundraising events for the evening including a 50/50 raffle, silent auction, etc. 100% of tips collected that night will be donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Great Strides Team: Kaelyn's Kure.

Kaelyn's Kure will be walking in Great Strides 2011 at South Park on Sunday, May 22, 2011. So far our team has raised almost $3,300 for our very first walk with CFF's Great Strides. Our goal is to raise $5,000 this year, and we are well on our way thanks to our wonderful family and friends, along with other generous supporters who have reached out to help for a great cause! We couldn't do this without all of you and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts - you are doing a wonderful thing by adding tomorrow's for those affected daily by CF! It's an awesome feeling to see everyone come together! We hope to see you all there! :-)

"Cheers" For A Cure

Thursday, April 21, 2011

7:00pm

Jose & Tony's Mexican Restaurant/Bar (Mt. Lebanon)

1573 McFarland Road

Pittsburgh, PA 15216

If you can't make it to the event, but would still like to make a donation, click on the link below.

Click here to donate to Great Strides - Kaelyn's Kure

Today, nearly half of the cystic fibrosis population in the US are adults. This is due to:

Better antibiotics and airway clearance treatments. Right now, 40% of the cystic fibrosis population in the US are adults. The current median age of survival in the US is 36.5 years. CF used to be a disease of childhood, as patients with it lived only a few months in the early 1900's. By the 1950's, they were living long enough to go to elementary school and by the 1980's, the average lifespan was 19. Huge leaps in care and antibiotics have led to this improvement. May it continue!

True or False: I don't have to worry about having a child with cystic fibrosis, as no one in my family has it?

False. A person with cystic fibrosis has inherited the defective gene from both their father and their mother, for two copies. If you have inherited one copy of the defective gene, you are a carrier. 1 in 31 Caucasian Americans are estimated to be carriers. It also affects other races to a lesser extent. For more information on this disease, see www.cff.org. And please, help us fight CF!

We were completely shocked when we learned that Kaelyn had been diagnosed with CF just 13 days after birth. Just as the question states, we had no family history of CF on either side of our families. We have a 1 and 4 chance of having another child with CF, there is no guarantee another child of ours will have the same diagnosis.