3 posts tagged “family”
And they need your help, please donate today ..... this is important. My family is joining the MS Walk 2008 tomorrow in Portland and we need your help.
My grandson Keegan's pledge page is here:
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=4640256&pg=personal&fr_id=8131
My daughter Karina's is here:
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=4652035&pg=personal&fr_id=8131
Minimum donation that can done from the Walk pledge site is $5.00, less than the cost of a meal at McDonalds.... I am just asking you to skip one fast food stop, save yourself a ton of calories and help the NMSS keep people with MS moving.
I care for people with MS, my oldest daughter was diagnosed in 2003.... trust me, it changes lives. The National MS Society helps people get access to care, they loan out durable medical equipment, they arrange respite care for families overwhelmed , they offer free yoga classes and support groups, they educate, they advocate and lobby for research grants, in other words they do what they promise to do. They need your financial support to make it all happen. Thanks! My daughter thanks you too.
To
bring everyone up to speed... my brother-in-law Dave had a stroke...
mid 50's, no warning, lives an extremely healthy life and had no major
health issues that he knew of. He threw a clot, causing a major stroke.
He is paralyzed on his right side, and cannot speak. He works for Adobe
Software so his employment has always been very mental, reclaiming
everything that he can is vital, the window for doing so is limited. Of
course his frustration and depression levels are through the roof. His
therapist said his extensive therapy would include PT, speech therapy,
plus intense visual, sensory and tactile stimulation. He has a rough
road ahead of him. I immediately thought of art, and the healing
potential of it. I also thought of fiber and fabric, because you cannot
get more tactile or stimulating that that in my book. I have to say
here that Dave is the most loving, kind, sweet man you would ever meet,
he has always done for others who needed help and now I want to help
him all that I can, but I have limits on what I can accomplish alone.
Knowing
my limits means I have also asked not only close friends, but also
total strangers in yahoo groups I am a member of, and any artists who
stumble onto my blog to please send any small art pieces they have
laying around doing nothing to be used in his therapy and to help cheer
him up (he loves textiles and fiber and art made from them, he is a
collector of ATCs, he adores funky multimedia art, collages and
assemblages). Things like this can provide great visual and tactile
stimulation. We want to stimulate his brain so he can reclaim as much
of his pre-stroke life as we can. It does not have to be a huge effort
for anyone to do something special but special is nice if you want to
take it to the next level. I want to surround him with color, texture
and hope. Art heals, and I know if you get artists working together we
can prove that it does.So if you do miniature paintings, small water color pieces, fiber art cards, ATCs, make funky pocket shrines, small whimsical assemblages or art dolls, or anything that can used in his therapy, things he can keep in a small rehab room, I want your help... I am asking you to add to the effort....and I am asking you to ask your friends to help out too. Please share this call for art with everyone you know, no matter where they live. For a little bit of effort, and very little postage we can all help Dave... and encourage him at the same time.
Most of us never know if the world notices we are here or that we struggle. I want Dave to know lots of people are pulling for him to recover by sending small pieces of artistic stimulation to help encourage his recovery efforts. Those who send art, please be sure your return address is on it, Dave may not be able to thank you himself for awhile, but if he can't someone will send you a thank you and acknowledgment so you know your art contribution got to him okay.
My personal thanks in advance to all of you who decide you are willing to take time out for a total stranger, who care enough to send him art stimulation and well wishes for a speedy recovery.
Dave's mailing info for at least the next 2 months is:
David Valiulis
Room 933
c/o Palomar Medical Center
555 East Valley Parkway
Escondido, CA 92025
Can you even imagine what it would be like to wake one day unable to do what you have always done, without warning.... and unable to say what you want to say? I can't...
Please help me fill Dave's room with art, encouragement and hope! (And spread the word).... I want to make his therapist speechless....
EDIT:
Virginia Spiegel just emailed me and she is very kindly asking those on her Fiber Art For Cure list (http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACS/FAQ.html
) to help out. Virginia has raised a ton of money for cancer research
with the help of fiber artists worldwide donating their work to her
auctions and art sales. Her Collage Mania II sale (http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CollageManiaDetails.html
) is the one I am donating my sun face collages to. So a HUGE thank you
to Virginia....and if you love collages you want to watch her sale,
every piece is a fine art bargain at only $40.
Keegan was especially cute this morning, he was in his Kindergarten Gangster mode.... trust me, it's not easy coming across like a tough guy when you have Sponge Bob Squarepants on your hat....
Marginally employed suddenly, with my only remaining agency client going into a nursing home today.... and this not being a day I work Viola, I am spring cleaning early. This is my try to-do list for today:
1)Clean my room, and organize it by getting Keegan and Karina clothes that have been tossed in there, into boxes and into storage or donated.
2) Get the desk that is sitting in the kitchen, into my room and the drawers filled with stuff I use. Mark it for the conversion to a sewing table.
3)Clean and organize the kitchen, get the new "Breadmaker's Hearth" countertop oven in place and hooked up, ready to use.
4) Run a load of crap to storage before it closes at 8 tonight.... or at least get a load into the car to be taken to storage tomorrow.
5) Get dinner started in the crockpot before doing any of this...
6) Drop Jan time card into the mailbox so I get paid on time for a change.
7) Fine tune my resume and get it sent out to the 3 jobs I found on craigslist
This is enough for today, I am still not operating at 100% power since the bronchial Pneumonia battle that started in December.
Wish me luck
