Monday, December 14, 2009

Toys for Tots

On Sunday, the faves and I went over to Dock and Dizzles to have lunch with them. When we opened their door to enter, we were surprised to find them downstairs in Docks office. We were even more surprised to see boxes, toys, pictures and Christmas decorations covering the first floor.

Of course, this inspired Dizz to share her stories with us. First, she went through a stack of frames filled with photos from several going away parties. My favorite being a large framed picture of the high school I attended. Next, were old pictures of the jam. Bub & his bowl cut, me with my hot-rolled hair & braces, both of us smiling awkwardly. The last thing that Dizzle found to share? My American Girl Dolls- all 6 of them.

When Dizzle introduced Kirstin, Samantha, Addy, Josefina, Felicity & Molly (yes, I still know their names) I was pleasantly surprised that the faves had their own memories of these same dolls. (Even though Becky’s memory was that she and I used to pretend they were rappers…while we were in high school.)

The American Girl dolls were an important part of my childhood. They were all given to me as gifts, so each Christmas for 6 years I had something to really look forward to. The fact that they’ve made it from MN to Baltimore and everywhere in between is pretty impressive.

Being reminded of how significant Christmas gifts can be allows me to reflect on what this weekend was about. 2009 has been an amazing year for me- by far the best yet. To help celebrate that, I hosted a toys for tots event for my friends and family to get together and donate their time and gifts while enjoying each others’ company. In a short time, we were able to collect over 100 toys to donate to Baltimore’s children.

I don’t remember seeing any American Girl dolls to donate, but I am confident that these toys will provide great memories for some special children this Christmas.

To learn more about Baltimore’s Toys for Tots program, check out: http://www.toysfortotsbaltimore.org/

Thank you to all that came out on Saturday!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Locks of Love

November was a busy month that ended on a fantastic note. On Saturday Dizzle and I headed over to About Faces in Canton, where Jeff cut off ten inches of my hair for me to donate to Locks of Love.

Locks of Love is a non profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. Anyone who has ten or more inches of hair to donate can pull their hair back in a pony tail or braid, cut it off and send it in.

It wasn’t until I sat in the chair at the salon that I started to feel a little anxious. While Dizzle took (a million) pictures, Jeff put my hair in a ponytail and without hesitation chopped it off. My anxiety went away when he handed me the ponytail- it was done! The first big surprise was looking in the mirror and not having long hair. The second surprise came when the B walked into the salon to surprise me and distract me through the change (I have some amazing people in my world).

After I was cut, dried and styled, we put the hair in an envelope along with the $1,020 that was so generously donated from my friends and family, (Thank you all!!) and sent it to Florida.

It was on Wednesday that I made the decision to donate my hair. By Saturday, with the support and empowerment of incredible friends, I was able to send a little over a thousand dollars, plus ten inches of natural blond hair to Locks of Love. Pretty amazing.

To read more about the organization check out http://www.locksoflove.org/