Ready, Steady, Wiggle!

We had an amazing time today at our 2nd experience at the Wiggles concert! These tickets were very generously gifted to us from our good friends, Kelly and Jay Lyons. We have gotten to know them through our CP community. We laugh that we seem to live parallel lives - each of our families have 2 kids 15 months apart and our oldest (James and Peyton) both have cerebral palsy. James and Peyton are 3 (4 months apart) and their younger siblings (Shae and Sadie) are also just 4 months apart! Kelly, like Mike, is a teacher! Anyway, very similar lives! They are such a sweet family. Thank you so much for gifting us these tickets! It was so nice of you! We had such a fun time. The kids loved it!

It is very evident that our kids share the love of music that Mike and I do. It is such a joy to experience it together!

Hope Cup Charity Golf Tournament

This past weekend, on October 5th, James was the beneficiary of the 6th Annual Hope Cup Charity Golf Tournament at Black Diamond Golf Course in Pontypool. There was a record breaking attendance of over 160 golfers and the event raised a record high of $9000! It was a beautiful sunny fall day despite it being rather chilly. The event was organized by Darryl Mathers who is a friend of a friend of my Mum’s. Yulan Fisher-Brown, a past coworker of my Mum’s connected us with Darryl to be the beneficiary of this years tournament. What an honour! Darryl puts a lot of work into running the tournament every year and he does an incredible job. It was an amazing event - everyone had a great time!

We knew many who golfed in the tournament but even greater was the number of people we didn’t. It‘s pretty amazing to be the recipient of such incredible generosity from a group of people you don’t even know! There’s so many good people in this world who want to give back and help others. It’s a beautiful thing.

Mike's coworkers from Duffin's Bay Public School, Fred, Andreas and Chris

Jon, Ron, Mike and Mark

Dan, Wayne, Jeff and Ken

Brian and Dan Wylie with 2 of their friends

Second from the right is Michelle Peon, a long time friend (and massage therapist!) of our family!

Second from the left is Yulan Fisher-Brown who connected us with this tournament

We were there to greet golfers when they were finished the course and for dinner too. There was a raffle during the dinner portion of the evening and during dessert we had a chance to thank everyone for coming.

The winners of the Hope Cup 2019!

We ate dinner with a little girl named Arya along with her mum and grandparents. Arya was the beneficiary of the tournament last year. Jen, her mum, had a chance to share with the golfers during the reception about Arya's process with her leukaemia treatments. She is doing really well! Shae got along great with both Arya and Jen that night!

We've come to the end of our fundraising events! We have been absolutely amazed by the support we have received. Thank you so much everyone! In just under 3 weeks we head down to St. Louis, Missouri for James' surgery. His surgery is on October 31st (yes, Halloween!). Thank you for the prayers as we pack and prepare to be in St. Louis for about a month. Bring it on!

Mike Gregoire Memorial Golf Tournament

We were honoured to have James included as a beneficiary, along with Madison Ambos at the 8th annual Mike Gregoire Memorial Golf Tournament this past Sunday. We've gotten to know Madi and her amazing family throughout the past 2 years since James' diagnosis. Her mom, Katherine, has been incredibly helpful in our journey as we navigate the CP world. You can follow Madi's journey at madimoves.com

We were there in the morning greetings the golfers and saying goodbye as they drove away in the golf carts! There were 220 golfers and 295 at the dinner! A record attendance of this tournament!

Shae enjoyed waving goodbye to the golfers!

The dinner portion of the day included a silent auction and 50/50.

There was a welcome speech from Lisa, Pat and Jess Gregoire - the widow and son and daughter of the late, Mike Gregoire. Madison Ambos, spoke about how the funds raised at the previous tournaments have supported her rehabilitation. She also introduced her friend, James.

Lisa, Pat and Jessica Gregoire

Here we are saying our thank you’s. Shae wanted to say thank you too!

Thanks once again to the committee for including us in this years tournament!