CCFA Walk

This last Saturday, my husband and I were able to participate in the "Take Steps" Walk to benefit the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). We had planned on taking the whole family with us, but the kids hadn't been feeling well, so we left them at home with my inlaws (thank you!).
I'd never been to anything like it before. It was very cool!
They had a band playing, booths set up with information and freebies, mascots from the Cardinals and the Coyotes, the Chick-Fil-A cow (giving out coupons, yippee!), FREE food, Star Wars characters (Zander missed out!), face painting, bounce houses..... FUN STUFF!
Then they had some people get up and give some speeches. A doctor talked about the latest advances and treatments (he mentioned Cimzia - the medication Brandon just started). They had selected an "honored" member - a 15 year old kid who has had Crohn's for 5 years. He talked about his experiences - he has had it rough! He's spent almost half of the last 5 years in Phoenix Children's Hospital. He almost died at one point and they had to remove his colon to save him. Makes me very grateful that Brandon doesn't have it that bad.
And then there was the actual Walk. I really felt it was like marching with an army of people with the same goal and purpose. It was only just over 2 miles, and it didn't feel very far at all. It was pretty neat. There were at least 2000 people there.
Several of the people were part of "teams". They had matching t-shirts with their team name on them. Some of my favorites were "Clayton's Crohnies" and "Connie's Colons". One team had red shirts with an "X" over the words "Crappy Bottoms". That made me giggle a little. Next year, we'll have to put together a team.
Anyway, it was a great event, and I'm very glad that we were a part of it. We will definitely go back again next year - and we'll bring the kids, and hopefully have a team!

We didn't bring our camera along, we just had Brandon's cell phone. So, we didn't get very many pictures, and the ones we got weren't all that great. But here you go - proof that we were there!

Some random people posing with the Star Wars guys. Behind them you can see where the band was playing.

Brandon with the Star Wars guys

Howler, the Arizona Coyote's mascot

At the begining of the walk - see all the people?!

And here we are! Aren't we so cute? (uhh... sure?)



And as for fundraising - I think we did GREAT! Our goal was $250 - and we surpassed that by quite a bit! The total that we earned was $325! $110 of that was donated by Zadyball - thanks to my wonderful customers this last month!
(That's just OUR numbers - the entire walk raised at least $100,000!)