Celebrating Liam...

On January 24th, Liam, "Prince Liam the Brave", that is, lost his battle with cancer. He was the inspiration behind Cookies for Kids Cancer and will no doubt continue to inspire many more people to raise more funds and awareness for pediatric cancer! I never had the privilege of knowing Liam, yet like so many, my life is greatly impacted by his. I'm grateful that a crisis can be turned into something beautiful....I'm grateful that Liam's parents, Larry and Gretchen, chose to do something purposeful in the midst of their suffering...I'm grateful that I can be a small part of the movement to help more kids fighting the same way Liam did...

Tomorrow, on Valentine's Day, there is a memorial service for Liam in New York City. People all over the city, including NYC firemen, will come together to celebrate his life. All over the country, people will be celebrating his life as well! In the Charlotte area, several Ben and Jerry's are donating part of the profits to Cookies for Kids Cancer. In the Raleigh Durham area, 2 restaurants--Poole's Diner and FullStream Brewery, are donating ALL of the profits from their Valentine's Day to Cookies! If you'd like to do something in honor of Liam's life, host a bake sale in your area or donate to Cookies here!

Read more about Liam's story here.

Rest in peace sweet Liam.

Prayers for Liam

As most of you know, I have been volunteering with an amazing organization--Cookies for Kids Cancer--for the last several months. CFKC began when a mom and dad became passionate about fighting for their child's life that was stricken with neuroblastoma. It is a few years later and Cookies for Kids Cancer is having huge success in the battle of pediatric cancer, but their son, Liam, is very much fighting for his life. I would love to ask you to pray with me for this sweet little 6 year old...

Read this latest blog post from his Dad on the last several tough weeks they have had...

Praying for you Prince Liam!

Bake Sale Madness!

My lack of blogging lately is definitely due to none other than the madness around me that has been Bake Sale! When I first signed up to head up the Bake Sale portion of Taylor's Finish Line Festival this past winter, I really had NO idea what I was saying yes to! But, when I got introduced to Cookies for Kids Cancer and all that was behind this incredible foundation, I was hooked and I hope to forever be a part of helping to raise money for pediatric cancer!

My now dear friend, Emily Fowler, who is Cookies' one and only employee, was such a great teacher, partner, and cheerleader for me as I learned how to put on a 25,000 item bake sale! And we did it! Throughout the process of baking, a Bake-a-thon, and the bake sale itself, we had around 750 volunteers! Bringing together so many different people in one community was definitely my favorite part about these last few months and it's exciting to think of how that will impact the future of raising more money through Cookies for Kids Cancer!

Taylor's Festival was a great success! Thousands of people came to take part in the celebration and the weather was amazing! Taylor was the star of the show in his own little fire suit and a lot of money was raised to support Make-a-Wish and Levine Children's Hospital.

Through the Bake Sale, we raised around $15,000 (still figuring out final total) and we are thrilled that we will be able to help another clinical trial take place (EVERY $ donated goes towards these trials!)! Thank you to everyone who volunteered in some way--I hope you were as blessed as I was to be a part of this! And thanks to everyone else in my life--for your patience with me as I didn't have time for much else in the last few months!

Enjoy a few pictures from the big day!

All of the circles on this banner are different businesses that sponsored our Bake Sale! The only thing we paid for was our tables and linens!

We raffled off a few Kitchen-Aid mixers!

We had a Pit Crew Cookie Eating Challenge! 8 teams of 5 guys each (actual Pit Crew guys!) competed against each other and we had local cheerleaders volunteer to cheer them on!

We had 2,500 cupcakes donated from a local cupcake shop-Polka Dot Bake Shop--AMAZING!

Our homemade craft paper banners were great! They represented the drivers of our driver cookie challenge and 4 local kids that have been diagnosed with cancer.

Tucker came to see what Mama was doing at the Bake Sale...

And finally, here is my awesome Bake Sale team! Lots of hours were poured into this effort between all of us and half of them I didn't know before this began, so I'm thankful for my new friends!

Amber, myself, Cindy, Nicole, Lesa, Emily, and Jennie...and there are more girls that aren't in the picture!

Bake-a-Thon!

I have to admit, when I first learned that we could have 15,000 cookies baked, packaged, and ready to go in 24 hours, I didn't really believe it. But over the last several weeks as so many volunteers signed up (we even had to turn people away) and things have started coming together, I was getting so excited to help make it happen!

Johnson and Wales, the local culinary school downtown Charlotte, has amazingly gracious to us! They were willing to donate their beautiful kitchen space to us as well as bake all of our cookies last night before our Bake-a-Thon! We got started bright and early this morning and saw over 100 volunteers throughout the day! We packaged and boxed 15,000 cookies that we will sell at Taylor's Finish Line Festival next Sunday!

Fun group of women from my church that volunteered!

Beka and Ashley...you know you're cute when you still look good in a hair net :)

Melissa and Jackson stopped in...Jackson (Taylor's big brother) put gloves on and started bagging cookies!

I'm so proud of our team of friends! I seriously would trust anything in their hands :) I'm also so proud to be involved with Cookies for Kids Cancer and all that they are doing to raise money for pediatric cancer, $1 at a time!

This week will be craziness for me but things are all coming together for the big event! Can't wait to share more along the way!

Good Pub for Good Things!

There is a great article in today's Charlotte Observer in the Carolina Living section! Great publicity for Taylor's Finish Line Festival and Cookies for Kids Cancer! Read the link below!

Personal battles lead to Cookies for Kids' Cancer - CharlotteObserver.com

Also, Cookies for Kids Cancer's biggest sponsor, GLAD (trash bags, etc.) just recently did a commercial for CFKC and it is on national television! AWESOME! Watch below and keep your eyes peeled for it on TV!