It’s that time of year again. Please read.

BDx13 - 4-17-2008 at 04:17 AM

As many of you know, my family and I are big supporters of the March of Dimes. And over the past three years, Thorp Board members have gone a looong way to support our fundraising efforts – to the tune of $999. (Seriously.) I can’t begin to tell you how much your generosity means to us!

Well, we’re doing the annual March for Babies event again next Saturday, so here I am hittin’ you up one more time. We’ve set a goal for ourselves of $3500. If you are at all capable of contributing, we’d love your support. Anything. We’ll take it.

Please visit our personal page at: http://www.marchforbabies.org/teamsadie

The money we raise helps the March of Dimes accomplish their mission of preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality by funding research, community services and public advocacy.

Thanks for everything.
BD & Family

Two more things...

BDx13 - 4-17-2008 at 04:22 AM

One...
For those of you that don’t know, my daughter Sadie was born at 25 weeks, weighing just a pound and a half. She’s endured months in the hospital, hundreds of doctors’ appointments and countless hours of therapy.

And you know what the amazing part is? She’s fine. Sure, she still sees a few specialists and has two hours of therapy a week, but to meet her today – you’d never know.

The fact of the matter is, however, that we’re the lucky ones. Each year in the United States:
- 500,000 babies are born premature (that’s 1 in 8)
- 120,000 babies are born with a birth defect
- 27,000 babies will die before their first birthday
- 9.3 million children don’t have health coverage

...and that’s exactly why we continue to participate.

(Sadie at three days, three weeks and three years old.)

Two...
This year, for the first time, we have expanded our fundraising by taking on team sponsors. I’d like to give the following businesses a shout out for all of their help and support:

Church Farm School

Def Star Screenprinting

Emma Design Studio

Fairman's Skate Shop

Large Animal Games

Sunset Hill Jewelers & Fine Arts Gallery

Lucabrasi - 4-17-2008 at 05:50 AM

money sent.

Dave - 4-17-2008 at 07:02 AM

DONE.

Hope you make your goal Duane.

DAK - 4-17-2008 at 08:38 AM

How long is fundraiser lasting?

upyerbum - 4-17-2008 at 08:51 AM

Go Team Sadie!!!

BDx13 - 4-17-2008 at 09:37 AM

boycott, luca, dave, jeff... thank you so much.

dak... technically, people can donate through our team page year round. however, we only actively fundraise during (roughly) the two weeks leading up to the walk and the two weeks after. so if you're interesting in giving, any time during the next two or three weeks would be great.

this year, though, we've put a LOT more time into it. organizing our team sponsors started back in February. additionally, i joined the planning committee for our local walk site last summer, and have spent the past year working with a handful of other volunteers and the Southeast PA March of Dime office to not only organize the actual walk day, but solicit local sponsors for the walk site itself.

CR83 - 4-17-2008 at 10:35 AM

Always count the Reed83's in.

defstarsteve - 4-17-2008 at 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Boycott Christian HC
Nice new Def-Star logo.

that logo is like 5 years old...
I was too lazy to make a new one

support this (bump back to the top)

DAK - 4-17-2008 at 12:40 PM

I'm in, but it will be next Friday.

Discipline - 4-17-2008 at 12:47 PM

I'll see if I can scrape together a few bucks. It's a great cause.

BDx13 - 4-17-2008 at 01:37 PM

thanks guys. honestly, any and all contributions are greatly appreciated, but if things are tight, things are tight. we totally understand.

you know, this is an issue we follow because we live with the repercussions every day, but i was really surprised by those last two statistics posted above:

- 27,000 babies will die before their first birthday
- 9.3 million children don’t have health coverage

prematurity and birth defects, ok, it's a lot, but i get it.
but 27,000 deaths? 9.3M w/o insurance?
wow.

XHonusWagnerX - 4-17-2008 at 02:44 PM

money sent!

hey BD, do you have a formal email that you are sending out to solicite donations? If you do can you send it to me and I will try to forward it around.

Discipline - 4-17-2008 at 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BD
thanks guys. honestly, any and all contributions are greatly appreciated, but if things are tight, things are tight. we totally understand.

you know, this is an issue we follow because we live with the repercussions every day, but i was really surprised by those last two statistics posted above:

- 27,000 babies will die before their first birthday
- 9.3 million children don’t have health coverage

prematurity and birth defects, ok, it's a lot, but i get it.
but 27,000 deaths? 9.3M w/o insurance?
wow.

The insurance statistic doesn't surprise me at all. The death one is a bit surprising. My parents lost their second child to sudden infant death syndrome before she reached 3 weeks old.

XHonusWagnerX - 4-17-2008 at 06:11 PM

We just signed a new Union contract at work and one of the changes in the contract was....

old language:
an employee who suffers a death in their immediate family (a parent, step-parent, brother, sister, spouse, child, step-child, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandparent or grandchild who has attained the age of 14 days.

new language:
they ADDED in 'member of employees household and they REMOVED grandchild who has attained the age of 14 days.

It made me sick that technically if you had a grandchild who died a week after being born, the company didnt think you deserved any paid time off to goto the funeral etc. I cant even imagine being at the negotiation where the company said.... "yes we will give you time off for the death of a mother, father, sister and brother, but if your grandchild is less than 2 weeks old you gotta come to work.

upyerbum - 4-17-2008 at 08:20 PM

That's cold. And sadly enough, most of the facts people should be made aware of go completely unreported. I'm glad BD gives us the opportunity to contribute to a worthy cause like this every year.

thedog - 4-17-2008 at 11:14 PM

done.

Voodoobillyman - 4-18-2008 at 01:29 AM

I will hit your site up upon my return big guy

clevohardcore - 4-18-2008 at 08:08 AM

I was just thinking of this the other day. Let me get some stuff together and chat witht he wife about what is available.

BDx13 - 4-18-2008 at 02:13 PM

thank you, everyone.
if you can contribute, great, we really appreciate it.
if not, don't worry about it, we understand.

we're coming up on $2500 now, so I'm confident we'll reach our goal again this year!

If any of you are willing...

BDx13 - 4-18-2008 at 02:21 PM

...we'd love for you to pass our note along to friends or family who you think might be interested in helping. It always amazes me just how many people these issues effect.

You could send just our URL ( http://www.marchforbabies.org/teamsadie
), or feel free to forward the same email we sent out. (Below is the version we send to people who might not already know our personal story.)

Thanks!

---
As many of you know, our daughter Sadie is coming up on her fourth birthday. This is an especially significant event in our family because it serves as a reminder of just how lucky we are that she is here with us at all.

On April 25, 2004, Sadie was born at 25 weeks, weighing just pound and a half. She’s endured months in the hospital, hundreds of doctors’ appointments and countless hours of therapy.

And you know what the amazing part is? She’s fine. Sure, she still sees a few specialists and has two hours of therapy a week, but to meet her today – you’d never know.

The fact of the matter is, however, that we’re the lucky ones. Each year in the United States:
500,000 babies are born premature (that’s 1 in 8)
120,000 babies are born with a birth defect
27,000 babies will die before their first birthday
9.3 million children don’t have health coverage

We’re writing today to ask for your support of our fundraising efforts on behalf of the March of Dimes. Next Saturday, April 26, Team Sadie will gather for the five mile March For Babies event in Downingtown, PA. The money we raise helps the March of Dimes accomplish their mission of preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality by funding research, community services and public advocacy.

This year, we’ve set a goal for ourselves of $3500. If you are at all capable of contributing, we’d love your support. Please visit our personal page at:
http://www.marchforbabies.org/teamsadie

Thanks for everything.

Discipline - 4-21-2008 at 04:53 PM

Just so you know BD, I've been passing this around quite a bit, so you'll hopefully see something from it.

BDx13 - 4-21-2008 at 06:08 PM

thanks, discipline, we certainly appreciate that.

BDx13 - 4-21-2008 at 06:15 PM

quick update on a few other Team Sadie and March of Dimes topics...

1. sadie and i went to CFS, a local private school that's sponsoring our team, this morning to give a little presentation about prematurity and the work that the MOD does. in addition to the school sponsoring us, the students themselves are doing their own fundraising for the team, plus, eight of them are volunteering on walk day for the event.

2. after we sent out our solicitation email (complete with sponsor logos) to family and friends last week, we had two people contact us about having their business also sponsoring Team Sadie. One is a small business owned by a friend that will be joining us next year. The other is Allstate, where former Edgewise vocalist Al works. They jumped in feet first with a significant donation that will be showing up on our team page in a few days.

3. artwork for the official team sadie 2008 tshirts is finally at defstar. and like a real prick, i've left steve with approximately 48 hours to turn the shirts around.

thanks again to everyone for your words of support, spreading the message and contributions.

upyerbum - 4-21-2008 at 06:31 PM

Awesome.

another quick update

BDx13 - 4-25-2008 at 03:04 PM

Today is Sadie's fourth birthday and tomorrow is the March for Babies event.

As you can see, we've already blown past our goal by more than 20%.
The new personal goal is $5k, and I'm confident we can make it.

Thought you all might like to see these as well (guess where they came from)...

upyerbum - 4-25-2008 at 03:09 PM

What's she think of a T-shirt with her face on it? Wish her a happy birthday from all of us, too.

Discipline - 4-25-2008 at 03:35 PM

Awesome shirts. So glad you beat your original goal.

DAK - 4-25-2008 at 03:42 PM

DOne.

XHonusWagnerX - 4-25-2008 at 05:10 PM

That shirt is awesome! If it was in the Def-Star store, I'd buy one!

I'm glad you made your goal and then some BD. I tried to get people to contribute. Not sure who did though. I got $20 cash from a friend so I sent you another $20 through the site today.

Discipline - 4-25-2008 at 07:17 PM

Finally got my hands on some cash to make a donation.

BDx13 - 4-26-2008 at 01:21 AM

thank you all so much.
the thorp board is shaping up to be one of our largest contributing groups.
that's really quite humbling, considering i've met like three of you in person.

the team as a whole has now raised $5,163.
just $50 shy of our record.
i might have to kick he bar up to $5500!

time for bed. i gotta be a the walk site at 6:30 to help set up.

more soon.

moron - 4-27-2008 at 08:56 PM

I don't come around here nearly as often as I should, but Im glad I stopped in today. Donation sent.

BDx13 - 4-27-2008 at 11:39 PM

yes, moron, you are missed.

thanks for the contribution.

joemaconmovies - 4-28-2008 at 01:25 PM

i donated i think on the 25th but i did make a donation. just found the thread today.

POST-WALK UPDATE

BDx13 - 6-30-2008 at 11:23 PM

So about two months have passed since the actual March for Babies event took place, and I think we're finally done with our fundraising.

- This year Team Sadie raised a total of $6,106 (a new record).
- Of which, $538.28 was contributed by Thorp Board members (a new record).
- We had sixteen friends and family members turn out for the walk (a new record).
- Funds raised at our local walk site were up 30% to $113,000 (you guessed it... a new record.)

Thanks again to everyone who participated and contributed - it's truly difficult to convey just how much it means to us.

Discipline - 7-1-2008 at 02:31 AM

Fucking tremendous BD. Glad I could do my small part.

DAK - 7-1-2008 at 09:59 AM

:thumbup:

XHonusWagnerX - 7-1-2008 at 10:42 AM

awesome!! You should have sold 'Team Sadie' shirts to raise even more

Furly - 7-1-2008 at 04:17 PM

That's awesome!!

XHonusWagnerX - 3-6-2009 at 09:57 PM

is the 2009 walk coming up BD?

BDx13 - 3-6-2009 at 10:09 PM

yup, april 25.
i've gotta get my act together.
been too busy to do much for the walk site committee this year.

defstarsteve - 3-6-2009 at 11:13 PM

just let me know so I can make sure to have the shirts ready...

Voodoobillyman - 3-7-2009 at 07:17 PM

I actually donate monthly for the year of 2009 to the foundation through the combined federal campaign where federal employees can donate money to a multitude of charitable organizations and yours was tops on my list Big D!