We're Walking!

It's here, people!  The walk is here. Man, it snuck up on me again.  Maybe it's better to be a total pain in the ass to people about it just so everyone knows it's coming versus trying not to inundate people with reminders.  Well, regardless...we're basically six weeks away.  The walk is May 12th!  It's time NOW to register and donate, and send me your tshirt sizes so I have enough time to purchase them. 

Regarding the tshirts...when you register to walk or donate or whatever there's a place on the registration form that prompts you for your tshirt size...this is for the Highmark shirts...NOT the Justalilwalk shirts.  I can't even see what you enter there, so if you're walking with us in May...please please please reach out to me on facebook/twitter/ig/text/email or...if ALL ELSE fails...phone and get me sizes. 

The walk is always a blast and it raises money for a great charity that directly benefits autistic people (both children and adult) and their caregivers.  So...Register now at the link below!!

Link to just a lil walk team page!

Just a Lil Walk III: Rise of the Lily

It's that time of year once more.  I'm inviting friends and family to participate in Highmark's, "Walk for a Healthy Community" with us again this year. "Just a Lil Team" will once again be marching for Autism Connection of PA (aka ABOARD).  The beauty of the walk is that 100% of the donations go to the charity. 


Three years ago around September, when this blog was newer and greener, I broadcast a plea for help to the autism community at large and asked this question, "To whom should I donate my money if I want it to benefit autistic people and their families and caregivers?" That post is >>HERE<<. If you're getting this message via snail mail, you can't click the >>HERE<<, so stop trying, you're just tearing the paper.  If you're getting this message and can click, but refuse, I'll summarize it:  

Anyone who was autistic said, "Don't give money to Autism Speaks".  There were a lot of reasons, and most of them were good.  The consensus was, "give to someone who can help autistic people locally, or give to food banks or shelters", because the sad fact of life is that many autistic people not receiving supports or services are the people in the homeless shelters and benefiting from the food banks.  I'm paraphrasing the masses (it was not a particularly well-commented blog post of mine, but linking from post to post by others who had covered the topic, that was the message I got).  One local autistic adult mentioned ABOARD.  They had helped her personally.  I had attended a couple workshops they had put together with my wife, and had previously donated to them.  They're the folks who put together the Autism Friendly Santa Visit at the mall, (they did one for the Easter Bunny too, but we didn't go).

Since then we've gone to many of their sponsored events:
autism-friendly:

• days at an indoor playground

• Santa

• Trips to see the Pirates play

• Nutcracker Ballet

• Lion King

• Art March

• Gala

• Symposium (in the Spring)

• Grandparent seminars

And these are just the things our family has attended.  They've become our personal pet Autism Charity.  We're forming a team again this year, "Just a Lil Team", and using Lily as our rallying point.  This is a cause that's important to her, or will be some day when she's able to take it up herself.

We'd love for you to join our team and walk with us on Saturday, May 17, 2014, at Stage AE on the North Shore in Pittsburgh, PA.  (Registration is at 7:45 a.m., walks start at 9:00 and 9:15 a.m. if last year is any indication). OR...OR...you can sign up as a virtual walker.  You don't have to be WITH us...to be with us.  If that makes sense.

The Highmark page is different this year, so I don't have it linked like I did in the past.  Right now all I have is a URL, which is Team Page URL:  http://hcf.convio.net/site/TR/Pittsburgh/General?team_id=1918&pg=team&fr_id=1110. If you click that it should take you to the page.  I'll also link the event to the Just a Lil Blog Facebook page. I'm looking for sponsors (essentially if I can get someone to sponsor the team, I can get shirts for the participants, provided I have a head count two weeks before the walk) and I've set a goal of $2,500.  I feel bad about setting the same target as last year, but we're getting a late start and I don't want to freak out if I can't hit the goal.  Regardless I hope we beat it.

Lily and Emma and Leslie and I will be down by the stadium at Stage AE on May 17th to walk. Whether we raise the $50 or $2500 or $10,000, we'll be there, and we'll have fun. And we'd love it if you could join us, or if you can't, if you could donate to the cause.

We have about a month to put together what we can sponsor/donation/team-wise so that I can get tshirts made for participants and make sure we get them in time for the walk. (last year we did it five weeks in advance).  This still leaves us a couple weeks to get donations, but after about the first week of May, we won't be able to change the tshirt orders.

Thanks,
Just a Lil Walk Team (Jim, Leslie, Emma and Lily. . . so far)

Last year's shirt.  This year will be different.

We need sponsors for team t-shirts (last year that ended up being right around $600 for 50+  shirts.  I'm considering adding the autism/bacon/tragedy meme to the back of the shirt since that seems so popular, and leaving the front as currently designed.  The shirts will not be blue (as they were the first year we did it) or purple (the second year).  I know they will NOT be black (the tshirt guy says he has to double on the white paint to make it show up right on black.  Maybe gray...Not sure...entertaining options.

STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL HERE!!

Walk Update

Probably I'm overdue to update the State of the Union "walk-wise".  As most of you already know we're walking again this year to benefit a local autism charity, ABOARD.  Our goal this year was to raise $2,500 for the charity, and to get a sponsorship for team tshirts.

We're at about $2,000 with about four weeks to go until walk day.  The site shows $1,700, with $175 in pledges, but we just dropped $200+ in checks off yesterday, and I know at least one person had their contribution mysteriously "vanish" into the inner machinery of Donor Pro's website (the donation was credited to the charity, but not the team...that's being resolved), so I know there's at least $300 in donations not in that $1,700.

We're just looking for $500 more to hit our goal. 

AND...AND!!!!

My mother-in-law somehow magicked her way into a t-shirt sponsorship from Bill Few Associates!  Which is great, because now I can focus on finishing the artwork and getting it to the printer.  Well, done!!

So...One last final* desperate plea...we only have $500 to go.  If you can...give, if you can't...cheer us on or share to folks who you think might be interested in donating to a charity that directly benefits autistic adults and children and their caregivers.

Click the link to the fundraiser, register, then sign up to be on our team "Just a Lil Walk"... Here.

If you have any questions, PLEASE send me an email at blogginglily@gmail.com, or contact me on facebook.

Thanks everyone!

*subject to change

May 18th is Coming Fast

It's time again to push "the walk" a bit.  I know I haven't been bugging you lately about it, but I will, and you're forbidden from skipping over these until you've participated.  Hah!  Trapped you.

Quick recap:  We're doing a walk to benefit a local autism charity that has in turn benefited us by our association with it.  We have attended their Galas and their Santa visits and their seminars and their lunch 'n learns.  We have borrowed their books and gotten recommendations for doctors and met other parents and received pamphlets...and now...because all of the above crap is funded ENTIRELY via donation...it is time for us to attempt to give back.

And giving back to ABOARD doesn't mean paying back on a balance to zero things out.  It just means that the money we raise will be used to help some OTHER parent/autistic out there who needs information, or support, or guidance or whatever.  It means they'll reach out on behalf of parents whose kids are newly diagnosed and find people in the area who can talk to them (as they recently did by asking me to call a dad with a newly diagnosed daughter...ME??  (seriously I'm not sure what they're thinking on this one...but who am I to judge)).  It means they'll host more Autism-friendly visits like the Easter bunny visit at the local mall (with them taking care of marketing, staffing, scheduling venue, answering questions, cleaning up, etc...at no cost to the participants).  It just means that giving to them means indirectly benefiting other people who can use the help like we've used the help ourselves.

Lily will be walking again this year (probably the short route (1 mile though...pretty awesome), and there'll be shirts and swag and fun and camaraderie.  And if you CAN'T make it...you could be a virtual walker from wherever you are...and tweet pictures to me while I walk and live tweet it from Pittsburgh.  Let's say hashtag:  #justalilwalk.  And if you can't walk in person, and you can't walk remotely...or even if you can't walk...you could donate.  

This year we're hoping to get a sponsorship of $500 for t-shirts for the walkers and $2500 in donations for ABOARD.  

There's a link at the top of the page.  If you have any problems or questions please feel free to notify me.  We found a way around the out of country Visa problems from last year.  If you use paypal, go through ABOARD's Paypal (there's a "DONATE" button right on their website) and in the purpose or memo line, put "Just a Lil team" or "Team Walter".ABOARD  will see that when they get the donation, enter it in as an offline donation. 

Anyway...this is our one big fundraiser that we feel like directly benefits not only Lily, but all autistics in Pennsylvania...young or old....and their parents and caregivers, and it's all run via donation.  The more we give, the more they can provide.

This is easy as 1, 2, 3:

1:  Go HERE  and register as an individual (or virtual walker if you won't be here).
2:  At the bottom of the registration it says "Join an existing team" ...pick "Just a Lil Team"
3:  Give us all your money!

It's so simple!!

Anyway, please help.

Here's some eye candy to ease your pain.

Daddy, I feel sad that we haven't reached our goal yet.

Walk Day!

I got all excited because during the walk I took a poop-load of pictures and tagged them geographically.  In my head I was thinking, "I can get a map and just plunk the pictures in and make it all interractive and gadgety, and by the time i was done exporting map routes to Google Earth and then Google Maps, and then Panoramia and uploading pictures and on and on, I finally decided that IF a blog post about this walk was to be written. . . perhaps I'd best dumb it down because it was taking forever and I still wasn't happy with what I had.


So. . .


I wasn't really worried that Lily wouldn't like the tshirt, but even if I HAD been worried, I needn't have.  She jabbered about how she liked her blue shirt and seemed genuinely fascinated by her picture on it.  It was pretty cute.  I really wasn't sure if the cartoon would be too abstract for her to link to herself.  I was worried that I hadn't sketched it well enough regardless.  I mean, it was really a two pronged problem.  1)  Did I do a decent enough job to even make the sketch recognizable to someone who didn't know who it was supposed to be, and 2)  Would Lily be able to put it together.


Emma and I left early to get the registrations stuff done so Leslie and Lily and my parents could just show up and walk, but Leslie sent these pictures.  Lily's l's are w's, so really she was saying, "It's wiwee!  It's me!" but who writes that way?  Regardless, it was VERY cute.  Leslie said she was very excited to walk (see exhibit B).


Couldn't have asked for a better day.  It was crystal clear.  No clouds, mid 70's all day (when it wasn't mid 80's).  We got there about 7:40 and introduced ourselves to ABOARD (Autism Connection of PA).  They were really helpful getting us tshirts and water bottles (or. . . water skins.  They were like foil versions of a wine skin, kinda cool) and giving us tickets to fill out to enter for drawings to win stuff in the overall Highmark Drawing.  They'd forewarned me to bring address labels, and I printed some out, but not enough. We got 1 entry for every $50 raised. . . and $2500 raised. . . so there were 50 tickets for the big drawings, but I'd only printed out 30 labels.


While I filled out the rest of the labels, Emma stood guard and held the completed ones so the "wind" (it wasn completely still, but she needed a job or she was going to drive me batshit crazy pacing around me) wouldn't blow them away.  A band started warming up behind us at Stage AE.


Emma said, "Is that such a good idea?"


"What, Em?"


"A band?  Don't some autistic people have problems with really loud noises?"


"Yeah," I told her, "But this isn't just a walk to benefit autism charities, there are all sorts of charities here."


"Okay. . ." she said, unconvinced, eying the stage suspiciously.  I liked that she's thought about that.  


A clown wandered over to the table where I was filling in addresses and Emma reoriented herself so that I was between her and the clown.  It was funny.  The clown made small talk. . . sorta. . . it was schtick.  She had blue hair, and I'm not going to lie. . . she was creepy. . . but she was funny, as clowns go.  


She started setting up for balloon animals while I continued to fill out information.  As I listened to her banter with people queuing for animals I muttered, "She's pretty funny, right Em?"


Emma, still behind me, said, "I guess. . . for a clown.  I don't really get 'clown humor'.  I get your humor."  I laughed and we finished the last couple tickets and looked for a place to turn them in.  I asked Emma if she wanted her picture taken with the clown but she said no. 


People started showing up for the race and after I'd turned in our tickets Emma made herself busy with her friends.  I stowed the rest of our stuff at the Aboard tent and meandered around, making small talk with people and cluelessly attempting to seem organized.  Lily and Leslie and my parents arrived and I had an excuse to seem disorganized as I'd take turns watching Lily in the crowd.  It DID freak her out a little.  BUT. . . her biggest issue was being wrangled into position (for pictures, or when we tried to keep her from walking off and exploring), not from the noise or crowd.  

The Pirate Pierogies were there and Lily loves her characters.  I got a picture of her with. . . Cheese Chester.  If you're not from Pittsburgh this will make ZERO sense to you, and it's too long to explain in what's probably already going to be a pretty long post, so link >>HERE<< to see what the hell a Pirate Pierogie is.  The event was FILTHY with pierogies.  And Steely McBeam (Pittsburgh's shameful secret Steeler mascot that nobody outside Pittsburgh knows about and nobody inside Pittsburgh acknowledges) was there too.


Tell me that pierogie isn't creepy.  You can't, can you?  No.  But not as creepy as a clown, so I guess, whatever.  So Lily kept trying to latch on to whichever costumed polish food product was closest and we got a couple pictures.  I took one of Emma and her friends with Steely, but it must be on the camera and not my phone.  He's probably even creepier than the pierogies are.


And then things got weird. . . Lily started a doomed and heart-breakingly brief romance with the cartoon image of herself on Emma's shirt:

"Hey baby.  How YOU doin'"

"I kissing her"

This was 'happy time'.  Because sometime AFTER this is when I kept forcing Lily to stay near the Aboard table rather than meandering into the crowd of 10,000 (!) saying, "I want balloon" since the place was riddled with balloons.  And she got pissed and had a mini melt down and tossed her kicky spectacles on the ground and my dad, who was walking behind me, almost smashed them underfoot, but saved them.


We started collecting at the starting line around ten to 9.  The walk was supposed to start at 9, but it was a little late.  Leslie and my parents took Lily aside after a painful picture attempt and they lined up behind us because there was a 5K walk (for serious charity walkers) and a 3K "Fun" walk.  Because those people aren't serious about walking.  It's all for fun.  We. . . everyone but my dad, my wife and Lily, were walking 5K.  For the children.  


The turnout:  Within the 10,000 walkers our subset consisted of about 42 walkers.  It was magnificent.  Everywhere you looked was a little cartoon of Lily on a shirt.  So many of Emma's friends from school made it.  Emma's dance teacher had to call off dance for Saturday because six of her dancers were at the walk.  Friends from primary school and softball and dance were there to support Emma supporting Lily.  It was beautiful.


We were starting at the bottom blue dot, and we were finishing at the top blue dot.  They mumbled some instructions into a megaphone before the start of the walk, but I wasn't paying attention, and it's not like there was any danger of losing my way in a crowd of 10,000 people all going the same route (although I suppose if they'd all have toppled off the Rachel Carson Bridge I'd have just pointed to Emma and the rest of our team and said, "It's THIS way, I think" and we'd all have died.)


The starting line was crowded with people.  Our group was probably a thousand people back or more.  We heard the sharp report of the starter's gun and as a cheer went up from the crowd, I ditched the balloon that Lily had wanted to have but didn't want to hold in celebration and we slowly plodded forward as the mob began the slow surge into motion and the space around us started to dilate.  After a minute or so we were actually walking, and I used my phone's dusty "Mapmyrun" feature to record our progress.  We were moving at about a thigh-cramping .7 miles per hour at least for a few minutes before we were able to stretch our legs and walk reasonably.

About three minutes into the walk a TV camera materialized and Emma was on it like blue bonnet.  If she made the news we never found out because we couldn't tell what station carried it (the camera wasn't marked and our preferred local news didn't show her) and moments later then he was behind us and our feet were carrying us toward PNC Park (where the Pirates play).


We walked past Honus Wagner's statue and I snapped a picture.  Actually, I snapped three.  The sun was shining so bright in my eyes that I couldn't see ANYthing on the iphone to tell if I was getting a picture of the statue or not.  All three pictures ended up sucking to various degrees, but this was the best of them:

You can see the rays of light beaming into my eyeballs here. . . 

and. . . this was the worst of them:

Arrrgh, my eyes!!!  Pathetic.

The kids were doing great.  In fact, they did really well until about a half mile from the finish line.  Even then they didn't completely wilt and stayed relatively upbeat.

Emma's in the front on the far right with her sweatshirt tied around her waist.

Meanwhile, behind us, Lily and my dad and Leslie had started their walk 15 minutes later.  Leslie told me Lily was doing great and that she'd actually gone to the bathroom in one of the (urk) port-a-johns before the start.  That was great news for us, and her in particular.  She sent me a starting picture:

Note glasses dangling from Papa's collar.  Still. . . she's chipper.  

Ahead, we walked through night and day past the Andy Warhol museum, and in and out of weeks through tunnels and almost over a year over bridges to where downtown Pittsburgh was.

"Tee dum, tee dee
A teedle ee do tee day
We're out for fun
And this is the game we play:"

 

You didn't realize when you signed up to be a virtual walker that you were actually going to have to live this walk picture by picture, did you?  Or perhaps that was your secret hope.  One of our friends who couldn't make it, sent text messages to Leslie showing her kids wearing signs supporting the walk while they walked somewhere else.


Only a few more to go.  We walked into the city along Fort Duquesne Boulevard past this mural:

And Emma spotted her summer CLO (Civic Light Opera Academy . . . for theater and music-y stuff) in this spooky alley.  The CLO offices are significantly less spooky than this alley, I assure you:

You can almost see the sign. . . it's approximately "beyond the point of no return" feet down the alley.

We made a wide turn and made to head back on 10th Street.  I texted my wife that we just passed CLO Academy and she replied, "we're done."  So that was good.  But we still hadn't made it to the second mile.


Emma yelled frantically that she needed her iTouch to take a picture of PNC Park and I fumbled for it before finally extricating it from my pocket where I was keeping it safe.  She had the disappointed look of someone who'd just missed a great opportunity, but I said, "Just run over here with me, stop, and take the picture.  We can catch back up." And she brightened immediately and we jogged to the fence line and took a picture across the river at the ballpark:

It was hot by that time, probably in the 80's.  The girls weren't quite as spunky, staying close to their parent or chaperone and not giggling quite as much, but really nobody was whiny or upset.

We'll cross that bridge when we. . . oh. . . now.

We crossed back over the bridge and were in the home stretch.  I texted Leslie to ask where they were.  They were at the ABOARD tent.  We marshaled our remaining resources and soldiered to the end.  Emma later lied and told me she wasn't tired at all.  

The youngest team member

People had started peeling away from the group, heading toward cars, trying to get home quickly before the rush.  I hollered my thanks to their departing backs and their shouted, "your welcome!"s.  We had a softball practice game scheduled for a few hours later, and I knew people were trying to get their kids home and cooled off before it started.

still keeping it together

made it!

And then it was over.  I found my family and met some more ABOARD people.  They'd graciously stored some of our extra shirts and water in a box behind their tent.  Before I left they did shake me down for their photographer's camera.  Apparently he'd put it in the box with our stuff for a while.  I assured them I didn't have it, but if I did I promised I would give it back.


As we left with a box full of ABOARD tshirts, we stumbled across some team members and handed some of the shirts and water 'bottles' out, lightening the box a bit for the walk back.  


Lily was still relatively happy.  We dangled a promise of McDonald's over her head and she latched onto it like a promise of salvation.  We stopped at another port-a-john before we left, the walk had taken about an hour and a half by the time we were ready to leave, and we didn't trust the 20 minute trip back to McDonald's to proceed dryly. . . but it she didn't go, and she still stayed dry until we made it home where she used a REAL bathroom.  I didn't blame her.  I'd skipped my second cup of coffee just to stay away from those things.


Emma got a brief rest before she changed into a softball uniform and got ready to play.  I carted the extra tshirts and water bottles into the house to. . . do. . . something with.  I don't know.  I have to find the people that didn't get shirts and get them shirts.  


We raised about $2,500 for ABOARD.  When we started I thought we'd be lucky to get $500.  They thanked us for how 'organized' we were as a team.  I told him we didn't really have a choice.  When it started we thought maybe we'd have 10 or 15 walkers.  We walked with 42.  Organization by necessity.


Whenever I told the story about how over half of the donations came from people with whom I'd never shared a verbal conversation, amazed head shakes ensued.  And they're still "ensuing" at our house.  We're amazed at the generosity of our friends and family and. . . 'internet people".


Thank you all for contributing to an amazing and successful first walk.  I promise I'll be a little more 'together' next year if you're still around following our adventures.

Thank you! (Week 3)

The fundraiser is winding down, but Team Just a Lil Walk is getting geared up.  I went to visit the screenprinter on Friday after work.  It was. . . interesting.  I know these guys do quality work, because they've been making shirts for my sister for years, and they've done stuff for the Penguins and some big local bands. 

TShirts

I pulled into their parking lot like the Dukes of Hazzard.  I almost missed the turn, and when I saw it, I turned sharply onto a heavily graveled drive, spitting stones and spinning tires while shouting yeeeeeehawww at the top of my lungs.  Possibly I made that last part up.  I parked more calmly than I entered and walked into their shop.  It was like a bomb blew up and the shrapnel was shirts.    It wasn't like a retail shop where everything is shelved and displayed for purchase. . . this was a little mini shirt factory, where the shirts go in boxes and those boxes go to the retailers for pretty displays.  But between the dryer and the boxes. . . there is shirtmageddon.  Imagine a big garage where you could perform maintenance on four or five trucks at once, only instead of trucks, it was filled with old screens from past jobs (one screen per color. . . our shirts will have five screens), random tshirts and sweatshirts stacked over and under tables with graphic art magazines and color chips, and a huge shirt printer/dryer machine that filled half the bay.  The dyes they use get mixed in these little pots or cans, and it's thick like putty, and apparently they don't just toss the remainder when they're done because I tiptoed past pots like unexploded land mines as I went back to meet with George.  


George's partner sat in an old recliner in the middle of the room.  He was wearing shorts and a tank top.  He said hi but made no move to stand.  George took me to his desk and pulled up the drawing.  Papers, magazines and newspapers flanked the monitor.  An old photograph of some woman's ass peaked out from behind the clutter like a pinup calendar in a 1970's body shop.  Screen printing is like the industry that time forgot.  They told me some screen printer horror stories. . . last minute changes, screwy sizes, huge customers with crazy deadlines, and then talked about our little job.  We went over the artwork, picked the colors for the print, and decided on shirt manufacture (Hanes).  I paid George his deposit, promised I'd have total count and sizes by Tuesday and went home.

International Pledges

I talked to the organization about out of country pledges.  They're a little miffed about the Walk's change from the old fundraising site to this new one.  Apparently there have been lots of problems.  But they DID offer a solution to the folks out of country who wanted to show support.  You can log into THEIR site http://aboard.web.officelive.com/supportABOARD.aspx, and click "Donate".  This takes you to their internal fundraising site, which allows Pay Pal.  You can donate and specify (I'm not totally clear about whether it allows you to say somewhere "We want to donate to the "Just a Lil Walk" team for the Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community" or if you just tell me and I tell them and they'll add you to the supporter site and credit the thermometer.  

Fundraising and Support To Date

Right now we have 42 walkers (+/- a couple who are signed up but may not actually be walking so much as dropping kids off to walk).  I ordered 48 shirts.  Once I lock in the sizes on Tuesday there'll be no going back. I'll feel bad if someone doesn't get a shirt because they signed up late, but honestly, we've given lots of time.  If things stay as they are I'll have a couple extras. . . we'll see what we can do with those.


Like I said, the fundraising is slowing down.  We have right up until the 19th to get our money in.  We have about $260 in checks in hand that will add to the thermometer total, and pledges for more (though we don't have all those checks yet).


This week our total is up to $1,720. Up $235.  I graphed how the weekly donations look and used the power of my gigantic brain to estimate the final online donation tally.  Through week 5.  

As you can see, the total is approaching $2,000 asymptotically, which means we'll never get to it. . . EXCEPT that the total only includes the online donations, NOT the pledge now pay later.  Essentially we're tricking the fundraising gods into THINKING we'll never get to $2,000, but we will totally get there.  I think.

Gratitude

This week, thanks go to the following people!


Amy & Taylor - Mother and daughter, more of Emma's friends!  Taylor thinks I'm funny.  Clearly she knows talent.
Annette & Michaela - there's a theme here. . . mothers and daughters walking together, friends of Emma.  Emma went to see the talent show she didn't make so she could support her friend who DID make it, Michaela!

Cindy, Ally & Katie - Mother and daughters again, a friend of Emma's, her little sister and her mom (only I messed up the order).

Derek Hicks - I. . . don't know!  Help me, Derek!

Dianne , Mia & McKenna - Mother and two daughters, friend of Emma's.  She's going to be so excited when she sees how many people are walking for her little sister!

Donna & Bob - Our vacation buddies.  Long time friends of my wife's family.  Thanks Uncle Bob and Aunt Donna!

Helen - Coworker of Leslie's once upon a time, they still get together for drinks on occasion. . . 

Jen - Possibly the first blogger I followed, but if not the first, one of the. . .  She writes over at http://www.iamstilllookingup.com

Judy & Abby - Mother daughter friend of Emma combo!  Although. . . we're playing her team in softball this coming weekend.  We'll see how the walk goes since it'll be the week AFTER the game.  

Loretta - Aunt Loretta!  My former brother-in-law's sister.  Very supportive.

Melinda  - CURRENT coworker of Leslie.  I think she's giving money on the sly because her current employer is also going to be in the Walk also.  I won't tell a SOUL.

Pamela & Mallory - Mother/daughter/friendofEmma.  Seriously. . . she isn't going to know what to do with all these friends.  

Patty - Lily's godmother and former coworker of Leslie!  Thanks, Aunt Patty!

Sandra & Emily - M/D/FofE - see. . . I told you.  This walk is FILTHY with mothers and their friendly daughters! 

And that's this week's wrapup!  So many generous people. . . and some of them I don't even KNOW!  Isn't that crazy?

Thank you! (Week 2)

I know she looks disappointed in you.  But she's not.  She's really psyched!

We finished off week 2 with a bang. And listen, I do realize I haven't posted a real actual blog post for almost two weeks, and lots of stuff has been going on, so it's going to happen, but it's been really busy. For some reason I've been traveling for work more of late. That's not to say I'm traveling a lot. It's still only twice in three weeks, but considering prior to that I'd only traveled twice in three years, it seems like a lot. Softball season started (Emma's team is 3-0 so far. . . holy crap, I'll have to tell you about the game Emma pitched. . . it was a thing of beauty), and we've been doing some speech and psych evals for Lil, and investigating ESY programs, so it just seems really really busy.

Anyway, on to the thank yous. Last week I said we'd gotten contributions or pledges totaling about $1,045. This week our total is up to $1,485. Up $440. If the teams "competed" to beat each other, and of course they don't, it's all about the charity (they totally do though), we're in first place and beating next nearest competitor by more than twice.

Thank you all for your continued support. We've got to get a final count on the team, so we can finalize tshirts, but we'll continue taking donations right up until the event (May 19th).

These generous people donated within the past week!

Amy, Tim, & Morgan - Real life local-type people. . . dance moms, softball coaches and friends of my daughter.
Bridget - Blogger, Tweeter, I feel like saying, hero, lover, but we'll stop at blogger and tweeter. Find her here: http://itsbridgetsword.wordpress.com/
Cary and Robyn - Twitter people. I don't honestly even know that they follow the blog, but they saw my tweet requesting help, and answered the bell! Thanks!
Cathy, Jim, Elisa & Noah - dinner buddies, religious studies debaters, and friends of the kids. Thanks guys!Charmaine, Flynn, Anthony & Brady - "Old" friends. . . like grew up with Leslie old. Not saying Leslie's old. . . christ, I'm not getting out of this one. 
Jacqui - Twitterer, blogger, and purveyor of snark, she writes here: http://chicktuition.com/
Jennifer Gillam - Jennifer just came out of the clear blue sky from Facebook.
Jodi - Another "old" friend of Leslie's. I'm not saying she's old either.
Kim & Tom - Aunt Kim and Uncle Tom. Hi guys! Thanks!
Lauren - Aunt Lauren. . . we attended her wedding last year. . . it was the subject of a blog post or two. Thanks!
Leigh & Nicole - Dance mom and softball/dance buddy of Emma.
Michael, Lisa, Alyson & Evan - Yet another dance connection!
Paula Miller - Just a nice person who Leigh convinced to donate. Thanks, Paula!

That's the week two contribution wrap up. Not to beat a dead horse, but the response has been fantastic. The tshirt design is in, and I got my first proof back from the screen printer last week. We still have to work on a couple things, finalize on the tshirt brands and get him counts on sizes, and then we're good to go.

I underestimated participation by. . . well by a fair bit, so I'm scrambling a little to cover the delta in the tshirts, but no biggie. Still haven't decided the final color of the shirts, but it's either Carolina Blue or Purple.

Here's the important thing. . . I have very limited time to get sizes and counts in to the screen printer, so the sooner you get me sizes and plans to participate the better. I'm planning to get final walker total to the printer by Monday or Tuesday of this coming week. Time's running out!

Also also, if you've set up the "Pledge now Pay later option", I can send you my address for the checks to Aboard. Let me know if you need that.

Thanks again everyone, and I'll update again in the very near future!

Thank you! (Week 1)

As you're probably aware, we joined this fund raising gig late enough in the game that we only REALLY had two weeks to hit our goal, primarily because the tshirt company told me they needed two business weeks in order to print the tshirts in time for the walk.  Leslie and I sort of shook ourselves out of our stupor, I wrote the first blog post, and Leslie tailored it for email invitations to friends and family who don't necessarily read the blog.

I set the goal at $1000, not really having any concept of what was reasonable, but thinking that $500 was too low.  After a little research about how the online pledging worked, we were off. 

For anyone who blogs, I venture to guess that there's a time in your 'career' that you are fixated on stats; views, comments, shares, these are the sorts of things that we become obsessed with, like a dieter on a scale. . . how much, how many. . .

This fundraising effort has been like that.  It seemed like every hour or so, someone had pledged money and it was amazing to see, considering 56% (I did the math) of the donor/supporters on this list I have never met, nor spoken to in any format other than 'electronically'; what the previous generation would have called, "total strangers" but what my generation refers to as "internet people".

And so after a week of doing nothing so much as posting links or tweeting requests, the pledges for Lily's walk (otherwise known as Highmark's Walk for a Healthy Community,benefiting ABOARD's Autism Connection of PA, (you totally see why I call it Lily's Walk, now, right?)) we stand at $1,045.

Amazed and grateful for the generosity and support of friends and family, pole-axed by the generosity of "internet people", hereafter also lumped into the "friends"category.
 

In addition to the $1,045 going directly to the charity, we also received "sponsorship"for the tshirts for the folks who will be walking on the team on May 19th.  I say "sponsorship" because the extremely generous friends giving money specifically for the tshirts declined to be referenced on the tshirt itself. . . anonymous sponsorship. 

Although we've already met our stated goal (which was more or less arbitrary) I want to continue to drive this as much as possible leading into the final week (before I order tshirts) and continue leading up to May 19th. Really the urgency comes not so much from the event, which is almost four weeks away, but from needing to know who will be walking so we can get the tshirts.  I want to continue to raise money right up to the days leading into the event.  If you're interested in joining us for the walk, please let us know as soon as possible so we can add you to the team and the head count.  

So who joined the Justa Lil Walk team, who donates or pledged to donate?  I'll list them (sans last names) here with a little blurb, respecting, to some extent, the wishes of the Anonymous donors who added little notes to their donations.  Some of these folks I've only ever really known by twitter handles or user names, others change their names and the names of their kids for privacy on their blogs, so please forgive me if I know you. . . but don't think I do. . . 

(Alphabetically)

Amy - online friend who blogs here:  http://lucysfootball.com and here:  http://insatiablebooksluts.com/ to name just two that I follow.

Anonymous - One of these came with the note, "suck on that, Jim".  You'd think that would have been a dead giveaway except it reflects the sentiments of SO MANY internet friends.  Nevertheless. . . I think I know.

Anonymous -"ham". . . that can only be one person.  VERY supportive reader of the blog.

Anonymous - "Nik and his mama", thank you so much (I'll link to your blog if you want, but it was anonymous, so I didn't)!

Anonymous - No idea. . . Thank you!

Anonymous - A couple who have lots going on in their personal lives right now (congratulations!) but still found some time to underwrite (am I using that right?) the cost of the shirts.

Cynthia - plays Draw Something with me. . . I couldn't even tell you whether she follows the blog!  She donated due to Lily's adorability.  (I really have to market Lily better.)

Dawn - Thank you big sister!!

Deb - One of Leslie's old airline work friends. . .

Elizabeth - A twitter follower, Draw Something player and blog reader.  Thanks!

Emma - my sweet daughter, whose sadness over not doing anything for Lily prompted our participation in the first place.

Erika &   Jeff -The Pickles.  Our couple soulmates who moved away and left big shoes to fill.

Gianna - Lily's cousin,who will walk on the team.

Gino - Lily's cousin, also walking with us.

Harvey &   Melody- My Uncle and Aunt, who pledged when they learned about the event from my parents.

Jennifer &   Jagger- A parent blogger (one of her children is diagnosed with Aspergers (he feeds her hilarious quotes)). http://jaggerisms.blogspot.com

Karen - One of the first bloggers I followed. https://solodialogue.wordpress.com/

Karen & Johnny- Another of Leslie's old airline friends!

Kelly & Sandi- Thank you Mom and Dad!

Kristi - The robotmommy.  She recommended me for the blog I do at Sprocket.  She blogs here:  http://therobotmommy.com/

Lexi - Another blogger.  Self-identified blog-nemesis who writes great 'stuff' at http://www.mostlytruestuff.com/

Lily - awwww, my little bug.

Lisa - Facebook friend and blog reader!

Lisa - I wish I knew!!!!  HELP ME!

Lori (and Joe) - Local friends with big hearts!

Louise - Miss Aweeze. .. another old airline friend of Leslie whose generosity is not a surprise.

Mackenzie - Emma's friend from school!

Marj - Blogger and twitter follower!  She writes at http://thedgoddess.com/

Maybe It's Just Me -She did this backwards!  Her name is Andrea and she BLOGS at http://andrea-maybeitsjustme.blogspot.com/

Merilee (and Bob) - My Aunt and Uncle back in Montana.

Pat & Del -The in-laws!  Yay for marrying into the family!

Regina - Came to me from Susan's book blog site, out of the clear blue sky.

Sherri - I wish I knew!!!!  HELP ME!

Susan - Susan blogs about books at http://insatiablebooksluts.com/ and was the very first person to donate (apart from me) and then posted a link on her site and tweeted and the whole nine yards!

So many people contributing, I started doing descriptions of everyone and then realized some people I know more about than others, and so I dumbed it down to try and be a little fairer to everyone who contributed because, as previously stated, I'm just amazed and grateful for the response. 

So I apologize for the brevity of some of this, I just don’t want to be uneven with my thanks.  If you contributed and have a blog, please let me know, I'd love to add it here as a link.

Joining the Walk: A Tutorial

A couple items of business before the tutorial.  


Item the first:  I'm amazed to be halfway to our $1,000 goal after two days.  This is day three, and I've caught wind that the sponsorship we wanted (to purchase shirts for the walkers) is taken care of.  I don't get it.  I mean, I do, but it's just . . . amazing.  


Item the second:  I'm going to try to post a weekly summary going into the deadline thanking individual folks for their donations and linking to them (if they have interwebz links and suchlike).  It is amazing to see the sheer number of people who contribute, and then have your wife say, "who's that?" and me say, "internet people".  Boggles my mind.  Mind --->boggled.

On to the tutorial:


It's somewhat confusing to join in, but I really would love to see virtual walkers if you can't participate in the actual walk.  Kinda cool, because it allows you to be there "in spirit", which is soooo fitting for the folks who follow my blog, and whose blogs I follow:  You're always there in spirit.  This fundraiser has been eye-opening in that regard.


Step 1:  Find the linky things.  I have two linky things outside the blog post itself (which has more).  Both linky things link to the same thing.  The page link just shows the location on my blog, versus taking you to another website.  See below for location of linky things:

Step 2:  When you click on either of the linky things they take you to this page:

What you do with this page is up to you.  There are a few options for folks who want to donate.  Some people have asked who to make "checks" out to.  The answer is "ABOARD".  If you decide to write a check, click the "Pledge Today and Pay Later" button with the associated information, then mail us a check. We'll take the check to "ABOARD" with us when we participate on walk day.  If you select this option and you don't have our address, you'll have to email me and let me know. . . 

This is the "Pledge Today and Pay Later screen

Step 3:  If you join the team, you register here:

This is where you get to pick whether you walk on Walk Day or Virtually walk.  if you join the team you have to register though, so here's where you go.  Click the "Individual Registration" clicky thing to go to the next screen.


Step 4:  I've taken the liberty of filling out a sample registration.  Took me 27 seconds.

All the asterisked sections are required. . . EVEN THOUGH IT SAYS EMAIL IS REQUIRED IT IS NOT!!!!  If you don't have an email. . . or, more likely, you worry that you're going to get spammed by Highmark, ABOARD, or me, just click the "Don't have an email" clicky thing.  It will automagically fill in a bogus email that is assigned to folks who have no email address!  Voila!


The donation, as you can see, is "OPTIONAL".  Can't afford it, don't wanna spend it, don't like me, don't like the charity. . . don't click it.  You can still be on the team and walk with us!


If you donate to the team, your donation will show up under the list of "Supporters" on the team page.  If you donate to me (this has already happened) it will STILL show up on the team thermometer, but your individual donation will show up under my name on my page, not the team page. 


If you're walking, you get a shirt from Highmark (for a donations of $25 or more).  The shirt comes from the event, not from me.  


Folks who walk with our team will get their own team shirt (the tshirt place gives a discount for 24 or more walkers.  Right now our team is at 9 I think.  The amount of sponsorship I asked for will cover the cost of the shirts one way or the other.  The shirt will more than likely be some form of the blog graphic (the little picture I drew of Lily's cartoon face) with "Just a Lil Walk" maybe a puzzle graphic, the website, and any sponsors who wish to be listed.


Join the team.  I want you on that wall.  I NEED you on that wall. The easiest way to stand and be counted is to register and join the team.  Then everything is automagic for us.  If you want to just send a check, we'll get it, and add you to the pledges ourselves, so either way, it's all good in the Lily hood.


Thanks everyone who has already donated.  We're BLOWN AWAY.  We don't know what the hell we're doing, and promise we'll do it better the next time around (minimum of one year from now) but your generosity is amazing and will be acknowledged more specifically in a later post.


Any questions, please ask.  I'll get you answers.  We want to blow ABOARD away with our contribution and make them look silly for only setting their goal at $10,000.  Thanks everyone!!