Make It For Maggie 2012!

Nov 4, 2012

What an amazing weekend!

Saturday (last Saturday! Yes, a whole week has gone by without the post going live about MIFM. I will try to explain why later!) was our third annual Make It For Maggie event. Kat and I started this project three years ago because we felt absolutely called to do something for Maggie’s Month. We wanted to involve lots of people and to bless lots of people…and Make It For Maggie has done just that.

We were there bright and early getting everything ready for our participants. Thank goodness for Keziah, Courtney, and Rachel…they set up the chairs and tables in all the classrooms, hauled supplies all over the building, and served at our beck and call for three hours before MIFM started. Jennifer came early and we quickly put her and her children to work as well. Kim came and turned the gym into a lovely dinner arrangement with all the tables decorated with children’s books and a fall theme. My favorite was the Make Way For Duckling table which had a copy of the book and then many squash turned into a duck family.

Around noon our guests started arriving. I love welcoming people to MIFM!

I love looking in their eyes and connecting with their hearts and thanking them for coming to MIFM. I love helping people feel special…because they are and they can feel it by the way I treat them when they walk in the door.

Ted (Kat’s dad) made everyone involved adorable pink name tags. I nearly died when I saw how stinkin’ cute they turned out. Emily, our photographer, snapped this photo of me and miraculously I look like a human being instead the ridiculous blob I normally turn into when a camera is pointed my way.

Ted also made us signs for the whole building and printed out piles of spreadsheets so we could keep everyone and everything organized. Kat’s printer is broken and mine has been out of ink for many weeks now, so Ted came to our rescue and printed up whole reams of documents for us.

This year’s event was a late night affair with classes ending at 9:00 p.m. and our teachers were superstars and stayed engaging and inspiring all day long.

Anne’s Laughter Yoga is always a hit.

Keri’s essential oil goodness was a hit during the 8:00 hour.

Sheila teaching about raw food scrumptiousness with gobs of samples everyone loved.

Here are Jana and Kim, our Dinner Chairmen. They did a fantabulous job! We didn’t have to worry about it at all!

During dinner we had a frenzy of last minute bidding on our amazing Silent Auction items, a delicious spread of soups, breads, and desserts (confession, I ate five pieces of pumpkin roll!), a tear-jerking presentation by Jodie (Maggie’s mama) that inspired all of us to work together as families to make a difference in the world for the causes we are called to give our hearts, resources, and money towards.

All during dinner, Kat calculated the donations to reach our grand total. Then, in a pile of tears (tears were flowing all around, not just from Kat’s lovely eyes) she announced to our recipients just how generous this community is.

The Osburns

The Roughtons

We thought we had $5000 to dispense to our three families, but we have run into some mathematical errors and are still trying to sort it all out. We know we have at least $4500 to split between them and are now trying to pinch hit to get back up to the $5000 we thought we had raised.

I am so, so grateful to be part of Make It For Maggie. My heart is bursting with joy over the whole thing! I am thankful to have a philanthropic project that involves my whole family. I want to smooch all of our amazing teachers – they are what bring our participants back each year. I am thankful for our awesome group of people who volunteered to make it a success this year – Jana, Kim, Charlene, Amy, Emily, Ted, and Lois all contributed of their time and talents and greatly lightened our work load. I am thankful for Katherine and the privilege it is to work with her make a difference in the world. Every single year my whole soul is taught of the goodness and generosity of individuals, the power of community and the wonderfulness of this community, and the miracles that happen when I am doing God’s work.

Thank you. Thank you for anything you have done to Change The World One Family At A Time.

May God bless you.