This has been a long time coming. After tallying up the proceeds from the Southern Fried Freeride - we raised $4,800.00. When I calculated the grand total - I posted so everyone could see how well we did with the help from all of you and the sponsors!
We sent $1,800.00 immediately to Chris Manthos at the AWA. He was very appreciative and even took the time to write a personal letter to me thanking me for the awesome donation! Chris is a really nice guy and he even wanted to be a bigger part of the Georgia freeride next year!
When we decided to make our other charity "Children's Healthcare of Atlanta - Egleston", I gave them a call and they were thrilled but we had to wait until after the event to see how much we raised due to different levels of donations and exactly who we should send the check to.....I just wanted to make sure that the money went directly to the kids! We kept running into a "red tape" brick wall after the event....
As some of you know - Picking Egleston as the charity was very personal to me. I had a son Patrick that was born with Hypolastic Left Heart Syndrome - one of the most serious heart conditions for children. He passed away at the age of 2 1/2. Egleston will always be dear to my heart because they gave me 2 1/2 years with Patrick and the staff and nurses really became part of our family. When he died, over $6,000 was donated in memory of him so they constructed a interactive Musical wall for the kids with a plaque bearing Patrick's name. It is directly across from the nurses station in the Cardiac wing of the hospital. Even though we have been serving the families and staff lunch on December 23rd each year for the past 11 years - I was thrilled that we could do more this year with the freeride!
Anyway to make a long story short (too late right??? LOL) - every year one of the biggest radios stations in Georgia (Star 94) does a radiothon to raise money for Egleston and Scottish Rite. People literally come from all over the country to bring their sick kids to these hospitals in Georgia and no child is ever turned away - no matter whether they have insurance or not! I thought that this would be a great way to make sure that your donations went directly to the kids..... Also during this time - alot of big corporations that are sponsoring this radiothon match donations up to $10,000. There is a good chance that happened so that our $3,000 doubled! When I get the letter from the Hope Fund (for big donations) - I will scan and post it on the X!
So Paul and my girls drove the check, some t-shirts and the big check everyone had signed at the ride down to Egleston last evening. Even though the radiothon has just ended - Denise who is in charge of the "Big" Events to raise money for the hospitals was overjoyed at our donation. While Paul was there, she called me to thank us ALL for our generous donation to the kids. Even though they had just raised over a million and half dollars these past few days - she truly made me feel that our donation was special. She also asked that we contact her for next year so she can personally take some kids to the ride to enjoy themselves and thank us personally for our help! She is also displaying the check so everyone can see and giving the t-shirts to some of the children at the hospital.....
I just wanted everyone to know what a difference your donations made to the kids at Egleston!!!
Thank you.....
We sent $1,800.00 immediately to Chris Manthos at the AWA. He was very appreciative and even took the time to write a personal letter to me thanking me for the awesome donation! Chris is a really nice guy and he even wanted to be a bigger part of the Georgia freeride next year!
When we decided to make our other charity "Children's Healthcare of Atlanta - Egleston", I gave them a call and they were thrilled but we had to wait until after the event to see how much we raised due to different levels of donations and exactly who we should send the check to.....I just wanted to make sure that the money went directly to the kids! We kept running into a "red tape" brick wall after the event....
As some of you know - Picking Egleston as the charity was very personal to me. I had a son Patrick that was born with Hypolastic Left Heart Syndrome - one of the most serious heart conditions for children. He passed away at the age of 2 1/2. Egleston will always be dear to my heart because they gave me 2 1/2 years with Patrick and the staff and nurses really became part of our family. When he died, over $6,000 was donated in memory of him so they constructed a interactive Musical wall for the kids with a plaque bearing Patrick's name. It is directly across from the nurses station in the Cardiac wing of the hospital. Even though we have been serving the families and staff lunch on December 23rd each year for the past 11 years - I was thrilled that we could do more this year with the freeride!
Anyway to make a long story short (too late right??? LOL) - every year one of the biggest radios stations in Georgia (Star 94) does a radiothon to raise money for Egleston and Scottish Rite. People literally come from all over the country to bring their sick kids to these hospitals in Georgia and no child is ever turned away - no matter whether they have insurance or not! I thought that this would be a great way to make sure that your donations went directly to the kids..... Also during this time - alot of big corporations that are sponsoring this radiothon match donations up to $10,000. There is a good chance that happened so that our $3,000 doubled! When I get the letter from the Hope Fund (for big donations) - I will scan and post it on the X!
So Paul and my girls drove the check, some t-shirts and the big check everyone had signed at the ride down to Egleston last evening. Even though the radiothon has just ended - Denise who is in charge of the "Big" Events to raise money for the hospitals was overjoyed at our donation. While Paul was there, she called me to thank us ALL for our generous donation to the kids. Even though they had just raised over a million and half dollars these past few days - she truly made me feel that our donation was special. She also asked that we contact her for next year so she can personally take some kids to the ride to enjoy themselves and thank us personally for our help! She is also displaying the check so everyone can see and giving the t-shirts to some of the children at the hospital.....
I just wanted everyone to know what a difference your donations made to the kids at Egleston!!!
Thank you.....
