The Next Step

Let's start by saying "Thank You" to everyone that has purchased, donated, supported, motivated or prayed for our endeavors over that last three years. McKenna is a special little girl and deserves every second of our thoughts and prayers. Since her birth January 12, 2008, McKenna has endured several major surgeries, overnight hospital stays and additional medical treatment to repair her cleft lip and cleft palate. In February of 2009 Sandy Johnson (McKenna's nana) Danielle Fenning (McKenna's aunt) and myself (McKenna's aunt) have worked hard to raise money to help with the medical expenses that the insurance and family were unable to cover at the time. The total cost when we began this project was $5,175.11. I am proud to say that as of today we have paid off $2,525.11 of those bills through our efforts. The expenses remaining are $2,650 and we have $396.20 sitting in her designated bank account for the monthly payment of $50.00. I called the agency that is handling the medical bills and I am told that we can settle the account for 60% of the cost. Currently that would be $1590.00 which is a little out of our reach right now. I know that we aren't there yet but I am hoping by January we might have raised enough with our craft sales to pay off all the old bills from the past few years.

Why am I telling you all this? First off, I want our organization to be full disclosure. Since we are not a 501C not-for-profit organization, we really want our donators and supporters to know where their money is going. We use the funds we raise to pay back the crafter for their products. We also have business expenses such as the website, booths at craft fairs, displays and other minor expenses. All other money goes directly to McKenna's bank account and pays off these past bills.

We want to work hard to get these paid off in the next few months because McKenna is now 3 ½ and needs to begin her speech therapy. I was blessed to spend the last week with my sisters, mother and the rest of the Perez family for my Cousin Kristy's wedding. While we were together our wonderful family went through all of our craft projects and purchased items for themselves and their little ones. I was able to see firsthand the love and support that our family provides each other in their time of need.

I want to share with you one of the little videos that was taken of McKenna while we visited. This will allow you to see her improvements from her cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries. It will also allow you to hear a little bit of her speech and understand that this next step is a necessary one.

Please if you have any questions or comments regarding our fundraising efforts or McKenna's treatment, feel free to contact me. Thank you all and God Bless.

Brandy Pate
(205) 706-9145 mobile
www.cookingwithbrandy.com/store to purchase items to support McKenna
https://www.facebook.com/KennasKornerBowtique

Thank You! It Means So Much To Us!

We just want to say Thank You to all of you that have supported us so well over the last few years and months especially. We have had the great pleasure of participating in many Birmingham area events displaying Danielle's jewelry, Sandy's crocheted items, Tracy's hair accessories and our scrapbooking products. I can't thank you all enough for your tremendous support and overwhelming encouragement towards our cause.

August was a stellar month and we earned over $200 to go towards McKenna's past and upcoming medical expenses. September was just as successful with over $145 going towards our cause. This month has proven to be another great month with close to $100 for the medical bills. I thank every one of our friends and family for their support, kindness, friendship and understanding.

Now I would like to thank the ladies responsible.

Danielle Fenning you are a master at all things crafty. You have produced over 300 pieces of absolutely beautiful jewelry and have been selfless in these fundraising efforts. Danielle gives every penny over costs directly to the Hope for McKenna fundraising effort down to the last cent. I truly admire your dedication to your family and your eye for design. Thank you for being a wonderful sister.

Mom aka Sandy, I attribute our love for the arts and craft making to you entirely. I am so pleased that your three girls were given even a small semblance of your talents and we have used it for a good cause. Your crocheted items have been a joy to see and our friends and customers just love them. I know you love to try out new designs and surprise us every month with your new creations. I look forward to each and every package. Thank you for your love and support and I pray that your seven grandchildren will gain some of your talents as well.

Tracy, you are a darling mother of three and an inspiration to us all. Thank you for allowing us to be such a big part of your life and for letting us work with you to help alleviate some of this financial burden. Your crafty hair accessories are adorable and fun! Each piece shows the whimsy that your family of fun-loving little girls possess.

Lastly to McKenna, you are such a sweet little girl. I cannot tell you enough how much your mommy, Aunt Dani, Aunt Brandy and Nana Sandy just adore you. I hope one day when you are a little older, you will understand that you gave us the opportunity to do something that we love so dearly for someone we love more than the world. Your mommy, daddy, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and everyone around you want nothing but the best for you. Each time I see your adorable grin with one of Nana's hats on or your mommy's bows, I know that God gave us these talents to help our family. You are an angel.

To all of you out there that have bought a pumpkin hat for your new arrival or a cute necklace as a gift for a friend, I hope you know that it means more than that. Each dollar goes to help a little girl and her family have the best life they can possibly have. Sometimes, the smallest gesture can mean the world to someone without you even knowing. I hope now you know.

Good Night and God Bless,
Brandy Pate

Win Movie Passes to Rave or AMC

During our “Who’s Up for a Movie” January fundraiser, we are offering the Hope for McKenna followers the chance to win two movie passes to either Rave Motion Pictures or AMC Entertainment theater.  All you have to do to enter is donate $1 or more on this site between January 1st – 31st, 2010 and your name will be entered for a chance to win.   A name will be chosen on February 1st and the winner will be contacted via email.  The winning individual can choose to receive two gift certificate movie passes to either Rave Motion Picture or AMC Entertainment. To find a theater near you please visit the theater locator for Rave Motion Pictures  or AMC Entertainment. All proceeds during our “Who’s Up for a  Movie?” fundraiser will go to benefit Hope for McKenna. Click the Donate button below to make a secure donation online.

 

Disclaimer: Hope for McKenna is a personal blog created by McKenna's family for the purpose of helping ease some of her family's medical expenses. This is not an official 501c organization however we are a not-for-profit organization and 100% of our proceeds go directly to Hope for McKenna. Our goal is to pay off McKenna's current medical bills and raise money for the American Cleft Lip and Palate organization and All Children's Hospital.

The tickets are valued up to $10.50 for Rave and $10 for AMC and have no movie restrictions. Though we appreciate your enthusiastic participation you are only eligible to enter the drawing one time.  All individuals that donate to Hope for McKenna in January will be entered into the drawing unless they specifically request exclusion. Any donation amounts exceeding $1, though much appreciated, do not qualify applicant(s) for multiple entries into this contest. If you have any further questions regarding this fundraiser, please click here.

Who’s Up for a Movie?

To bring in the new year, we are offering our friends and family a chance to win two movie passes to Rave Motion Pictures.  All you have to do is donate $1 or more between January 1st – 31st, 2010 and your name will be entered for a chance to win.   A name will be chosen on February 1st and the winner will be contacted via email.  That individual will receive two gift certificate movie passes valid at any Rave Motion Picture nationwide. To find a theater near you please visit Rave’s theater location finder. All proceeds during our “Who’s Up for a Movie?” fundraiser will go to benefit Hope for McKenna. Click the Donate button below to make a secure donation online.

Disclaimer: Hope for McKenna is a personal blog created by McKenna's family for the purpose of helping ease some of her family's medical expenses. This is not a not-for-profit organization and donations are not tax deductable, though greatly appreciated.

The tickets are valued up to $10.50 and have no movie restrictions. Though we appreciate your enthusiastic participation you are only eligible to enter the drawing one time.  All individuals that donate to Hope for McKenna in January will be entered into the drawing unless they specifically request exclusion. Any donation amounts exceeding $1, though much appreciated, do not qualify applicant(s) for multiple entries into this contest. If you have any further questions regarding this fundraiser, please click here.

Bake Sale Encore!

Wow! Thank you to those of you who participated in today's bake sale. Not only did we sell all the goodies but some of my wonderful co-workers also made monetary donations to Hope for McKenna. We netted $151 today! To make the day even better, I have requests for more cookies.  I spent the evening making 8 dozen cookies to take to the office tomorrow.  I made Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies for tomorrows bake sale. Only downfall was that the plastic Christmas containers are smaller than the 1st round so I could  only fit 8 to 12 cookies in each depending on the size of the cookies. I did make some cute “thank you” labels for each container. We have the potential of making about $80 so wish us luck.  I think it should go well because while I was baking, my friend, Beth called and her husband insisted she buy the Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies right then and there.  I hope the rest of the items sell this well tomorrow.

If you know of any great fundraising ideas, please send them our way.  It is so easy to just ask, ask, ask but it is more fulfilling to give something heartfelt in return for the donations.

Thank you again to all that support Hope for McKenna.  Hopefully, in the near future, we can spread the kindness our family and friends have shown us to another family in need. 

Thanks,

Aunt Brandy

Bake Sale Fundraiser

Tomorrow, December 22nd, we will be holding a bake sale fundraiser at my office to help raise additional funds for Hope for McKenna.

I will be selling and/or raffling off three tubs of Chocolate Chunk & Pecan Cookies (18 count)  as well as three take-out boxes  of the Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies (6 count). I made them all tonight with Nestle brand chocolate chips.  I also have a tree-shaped, glass candy canister filled with various Christmas candy such as Snickers, Whoppers, Chocolate Crisps, Hershey’s chocolates and cherry cordial Hershey’s kisses.  I also have a coffee mug filled with Hershey’s candy and some chocolate angels. I am trying to decide what will be sold and what will be raffled off. The only thing I forgot was to buy raffle tickets. I am sure I’ll make do.

 

Thank you for all your support during our efforts to raise money for McKenna.  Our goal is to help alleviate the financial burden that her 6 surgeries in the past two years have created.  Any money  that we raise above and beyond her medical expenses will be donated to a cleft palate association chosen by the Conrad family. 

Thank you again for your support and if you have the opportunity, please participate in the fundraiser tomorrow in Mt. Laurel.

Brandy Pate

A Chance To Win Movie Passes Coming This January!

I am excited to say that I got the go ahead from the movie theater so starting January 1st we are raffling off two movie passes to the Rave movie theater. Anyone who makes at least a $1 donation on our website will be entered into a drawing to win two movie passes. I will send out an alert the 1st of January. A name will be randomly chosen on January 31st. Good Luck!

Now Join Us On Facebook!

We are happy to announce that we created a new Facebook account for Hope for McKenna.  We did this in an effort to spread the word about McKenna’s successful cleft lip and cleft palate operations.  We hope to provide support and guidance to families that are currently going through these surgeries or success stories of children that have completed their surgeries.  Please visit our group and share your stories. 

To join our Facebook group please click here: Hope for McKenna

Thanks,

Brandy Pate

McKenna’s Doing Great

We just wanted to update everyone on Ms. McKenna.  She is doing very well and has adjusted wonderfully after her surgeries 6 months ago. I was able to take a trip to West Palm Beach to visit the Conrad family earlier last month.  The whole crew was doing wonderfully.  McKenna has grown so much and she is a pretty excellent swimmer not to mention an adorable little girl.  Bela bear is also doing great in kindergarten and wow what a sweetheart she is.  I took the cutest photo of McKenna swimming with all of us.  She was sharing toys with Baby Zoey and Uncle Adam was playing “toss the baby” in the pool.  She thought it was the best thing ever. I was so sad when we had to leave our vacation early.

Tracy sent me Halloween photos at the beginning of the week and OMG Bela and McKenna were adorable. Bela was a flapper girl with the shimmy shake dress, boa and headband. She looked fabulous dawlin’.  McKenna was dressed up as the most adorable little gnome I have ever seen in my life. Tracy said that everywhere they went, people commented on their adorable and unique costumes. Too cute!

 

McKenna really is doing great and so are The Conrad's and that is in part thanks to all of you.  Your donations and purchases during our various fundraisers has truly relieved the financial burden McKenna’s surgeries have incurred. I am proud to say that to date we have earned $1504.46. $220.00 of that was solely from the A Mother’s Love kits that were sold through www.scrapoutsidethebox.com.  A huge thank you goes to Walter and Pam Pate for their generous donation to McKenna. We can not thank you enough for helping your extended family.

But there is still much we need to do to finish our task at hand.  Our current funds will take care of the minimum monthly payments through February of this year but we still need over $3,600.  We have some great ideas lined up for earning funds including art projects, bake sales, and much, much more.  We look forward to sharing more of McKenna’s adventures and our creative ideas with all of you. Be sure to visit our sister (no pun intended) sites to see what activities we have going on in the creative market.

Thank you again everyone and of course, Happy Holidays!

Brandy Pate a.k.a Aunt Bannee

Thank you for your Support

We wanted to post a general thank you to everyone that has donated to the Hope for McKenna fundraiser or purchased the digital scrapbooking kit "A Mother's Love" from http://www.scrapoutsidethebox.com/. So far we have received $660.00 in donations and sold $175 worth of the charity kits for a total of $835.00 reaching 18% of our goal. We are searching for alternative methods to raise money for McKenna's past and upcoming medical bills, so please be on the lookout for these upcoming offers.

A little follow-up on McKenna's well-being; she is doing well but still has a few doctor's visits lined up for the near future as well as a big move to southern Florida. The Conrad's are moving from Panama City to West Palm Beach in the next month. This is a good move because McKenna will be closer to her doctors in Tampa. McKenna is almost 17 months old and weighs about 21 lbs (the same as my 10 month old). She just healed from a double ear infection however the doctor feels that she may need to get tubes in her ears. She is scheduled to visit an ear, nose and throat specialist just to be sure. She also needs to visit the dentist because of the alignment of her teeth from her cleft palate. In addition, she will need to begin speech therapy to ensure that she will not have a speech impediment in the future. I don't think talking will be much of a problem, because just yesterday, she figured out how to call me on the phone. I listened closely to that adorable little voice as she jibber jabbered on and on about something so intently. She certainly had something to tell Aunt Brandy. Aunt Dani said she had called her as well and told her the most exciting but intangible story. What a cutie pie.

So, all in all, Ms. McKenna (or "Sister" as Bela calls her) is doing well. She has healed well and responded wonderfully to the surgeries and massive amounts of doctors’ offices she has been in and out of. We are hopeful that her physician visits will become fewer and farther between. She is eating well, growing strong and always playful. Her innocence and joyful spirit will heal her ailments, and she will grow into a beautiful toddler and young lady one day. I know this in my heart.

Thank you for all you have done and your continued love and support. Please share McKenna’s story of love, courage and community support.