Thank to everyone that came out to support us at the Mt. Laurel Spring Festival and Oak Mountain Middle School Expo last month. We were able to raise over $200 towards the Hope for McKenna fundraiser. The goal of the fundraiser is to help raise money for McKenna’s upcoming treatments including starting her speech therapy lessons and some much needed dental work. I’ve asked her mama, my baby sister Tracy, to please send us some more details regarding McKenna’s treatment so I can share it with all of you.

Now that McKenna is 3 years and 4 months old, it is important that we work harder than ever to help this amazing little girl during this vital growth period. Please take some to visit our new online store full of unique crafts and gifts. This items were all made by her family to help aide in the fundraising efforts. All proceeds go directly to McKenna’s medical expenses. Thank you and God Bless.

I am loving these new market bags that my wonderful mother has made. She has crocheted some beautiful bags for you to take with you to the farmer’s market or craft fair. I’m a lucky girl because I was able to pick out my own colors for my bag. Check out the current market bags we have in inventory and keep your eye out for new colors and designs coming soon. Pick out your one-of-a-kind, gorgeous market bag for just $20!

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 to Hope for McKenna 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.

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.

Wow! Thank you to those of you who participated in the 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. The first day we made $151! To make the day even better, I had requests for more cookies.  I spent Wednesday evening making 8 dozen cookies to take to the office the following day.  I made Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Reese’s Chewy Chocolate Cookies. Only downfall was that the plastic Christmas containers were 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 had the potential of making about $80.  I thought it would 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 hoped the rest of the items would sell well but figured whatever didn’t sell could be gifted to family and friends.

Well guess what, between sales and monetary donations made by family and friends, we made a whopping $310 overall!

At the end of the day that is quite a significant amount of donations for only two days of work.  I look forward to finding other ways of raising money for Ms. McKenna. Both my sisters, McKenna’s mom, Tracy and our older sister Danielle are working hard to try to raise money over the next year.  We have hand crafted paper products, hand-made clothing accessories and raffles ongoing.  Look for future posts on these items.

***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

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

We sold 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 with Nestle brand chocolate chips.  I also had 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.  We also sold a coffee mug filled with Hershey’s candy and some chocolate angels.

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.

Brandy Pate

My husband, Adam, designed a great logo called I Like Pi.  He has it posted on CafePress and we have ordered a shirt, magnets and a coffee mug and they turned out great. 

http://www.cafepress.com/ilikepi 

He chose a variety of items to add the logo to and they have done very well so far. I posted some photos of the most popular items below. For the last few years, Math teachers have purchased groups of the I Like Pi shirts for various math competitions.  I think that is so cool.  Great Job Adam!

I encourage you to post your cool designs there, you never know who will buy something. I plan on designing some items to post there so I can earn funds for my niece’s medical bills http://hopeformckenna.blogspot.com/

Dear Family & Friends,

As many of you know, my niece McKenna Elise Conrad is a happy and energetic child full of squeals and giggles for all that have the pleasure of meeting her.  What some of you may not know is that she was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate.  At only 14 months old, McKenna has already undergone numerous medical procedures, been placed under anesthesia 5 times, had a painful appliance to restructure her mouth and had stitches to repair her cleft lip.  On March 6th, McKenna received her 6th surgery to repair her cleft palate.  The surgery was a rough process and unfortunately McKenna had to stay in the hospital for an additional day until she was able to finally eat albeit through a syringe. 

Over the past year, the Conrad’s primary objective was to make McKenna’s life a happy one by providing the necessary surgeries to help McKenna breathe and eat normally.  They have endured long trips between Panama City and Tampa, Florida to find McKenna the best care imaginable. 

My older sister, Danielle and I have been struggling to find ways to help my younger sister and her wonderful family during these difficult times.  Through Danielle’s ingenuity and creativity, she came up with the idea to design a digital scrapbooking kit that she could display on her popular website www.scrapoutsidethebox.com to help raise money for McKenna’s extensive medical bills.  She worked with some other creative designers to create a beautiful scrapbooking kit called "A Mother’s Love" available for sale with all the proceeds benefiting the Hope for McKenna fundraising effort.

For those of you that do not participate in digital scrapbooking but would still like to help, we are accepting donations towards the families medical bills. It goes without saying that these are trying times for everyone financially but if you have the means to lend even a dollar or two, it would mean so much to us.

We invite you and your loved ones to visit the new blog http://hopeformckenna.blogspot.com/ to learn her story and keep up with her progress as she grows into a beautiful young girl.  Please, keep her and her family, Tracy, Jimi and Bela Marie, in your prayers. 

With much love and admiration,

Brandy Pate

http://hopeformckenna.blogspot.com

www.cookingwithbrandy.com

www.scrapoutsidethebox.com

Please visit Hope for McKenna and help our little niece