The events have begun!

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. So far the spring is flying by, I can’t believe it’s almost April. The events supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation have finally begun, which means things are about to get even busier. Yesterday was the kick off of events, starting with the Race for Wishes. A group of friends and I attended the race in Irving and had an absolute blast! They had a huge turnout and raised just over $162, 903, so needless to say it was a success. There was live music, tons of food, a kids zone, and beautiful weather so it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Several of the “wish” kids were also there and participated in the race, which was awesome to see. Their faces were full of excitement and hope, and according to the foundation this was the most successful race they’ve ever had. My friends and I agree that we should make it a tradition to go every year; you have a great time while supporting one of the best foundations.

The race for wishes in Irving isn’t the only successful thing going on for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas, recently the foundation just named SMU’s head football coach, June Jones, as the honorary chair for the 15^th annual Wish Night. Wish night is one of the foundations biggest events; overall the event has raised more than $8.5 million dollars to grant wishes in North Texas. Jones was quoted saying, “I’m really happy to be helping The Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas, the foundation does so many great things and we just hope that we can create some wonderful opportunities for these children and their families.” With the addition of June Jones to the event, hopefully it can be even more successful. In an earlier post I wrote a little bit about Wish Night but just to refresh your memory the event will feature silent and live auctions and guests will enjoy dinner, dancing and performances by some of North Texas’ very own wish kids. The foundation has set a goal to raise $700,000 at this years Wish Night. Hopefully, with the support of the community that won’t be a problem!

The Make-A-Wish Foundation has created such an impact in children’s and families lives and will continue to do so over the next several years. Each year they raise more and more money, hopefully they will continue this pattern. I’m looking forward to the next event, Wishes & Crawfishes, and hopefully you all are too!

Wishes & Crawfishes or Wish Apon A Par!

I hope that everyone has enjoyed their spring break, now it’s time to get back into the swing of things! The Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas has just released four more event opportunities for April and May. The events range from spending a morning playing golf to enjoying an afternoon boiling crawfish or spending the evening making candy, so needless to say they all sound like a pretty good deal. The events are called Wishes & Crawfishes, Wish Apon A Par, Wish Night 2011, and Delicious Wishes. Below are all the details for each event!

Wishes and Crawfishes will be held Sunday April 10^th at 12 p.m. in Dallas. The event will be presented by the Crew, the young leaders of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas, and will take place at the Ginger Man located at 2718 Boll Street. Tickets are $30 for crew members and $40 for non members, there will also be a raffle for the opportunity to win awesome prizes, one of the prizes being a pair of Southwest Airline tickets! To purchase tickets please go to the link posted below!Wishes & Crawfishes Information

The second event taking place is Wish Apon A Par. Wish Apon A Par will be held Monday April 11^th at 11 a.m. The event will take place at Hawks Creek Golf Club, 6520 White Settlement Road, in Fort Worth. This is the first year The Make-A-Wish Foundation is hosting a golf tournament so they are hoping for a great outcome so they can create a new tradition. Registration begins at 11 a.m. lunch will be served at noon and tee off will be at 1:30 p.m. But don’t forget about the wine tasting after a round of golf! It is $250 per player so if you are interested in signing up please contact Emilie Peloubet at epeloubet@northtexaswish.org

The third event, Wish Night 2011, will take place May 14^th in Dallas. Wish Night is a night dedicated for wish kids to sing, dance and just have a great time sharing their stories of hope with each other and everyone else there. The event is held at the Hilton Anatole at 2201 Stemmons Freeway. The room will be filled with fun candy, and bright colors to bring joy to all the kids. It is set to have a Willy Wonka theme. This event is still in the works but more information should be coming to their website soon! If you are interested in learning more or attending please email Elissa Mittendorf at emittendorf@northtexaswish.org

Last but not least is the Delicious Wishes event! Delicious Wishes will take place May 19^th from 7:00- 10:00 p.m. at the Benbrook Stable, 10001 Benbrook Blvd. in Benbrook, Texas. Come enjoy a night experiencing the food from some of Fort Worth’s favorite chefs, including twenty chefs from all over the Fort Worth area and live music from Fort Worth’s own Hudson Moore. Cooking and music won’t be the only thing going on, there will also be a live auction featuring one-of-a kind fabulous food experiences and a silent auction featuring priceless “Wish Art.” Tickets to enjoy this spectacular night are $100 per person. For more information about the event please email Emilie Peloubet  epeloubet@northtexaswish.org.

Hopefully one of these events grabs your attention and encourages you to participate!

Skeet Shooting or Wine Tasting...You Choose.

While we anticipate the next few weeks before all of our upcoming events, I happened to come across a few other events that are specifically in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. So if you ever need something to do on a weekend or weekday and want to support a good cause, you should check these out.

For those of you who are into hunting, shooting and all of those fun outdoor activities, this event might be just for you! 

On Saturday April 2^nd the “Shooting Stars Sporting Clays” event will take place in Gladewater, Texas. The event will be held at the Prairie Creek Sporting Clays, one of the premier full service shooting facilities in East Texas. The event will consists of a full and thrilling day of shooting games, lunch and dinner. Prizes will also be give out! So why not get a groupd of buddies and spend the day shooting sporting clays! Sponsorship opportunities are available, if you are interested please contact Holly Leiferman at 903-597-9474 or email her at hleiferman@northtexaswish.org

If hunting and the outdoors isn’t your thing, then don’t worry there are more options! 

On Wednesday March 23^rd Morton’s Steakhouse in Dallas is hosting a wine and dine night to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The night will start with exploring the fine vintages of the Charles Krug Winery of Napa Valley and having an arrangement of appetizers ranging from jumbo lump crab cakes to Belgian endive with blue cheese at 6:30 then dinner will be served at 7. Dinner will include a mixed field greens salad, a choice of an entre and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. It is $150 per guest, tax and gratuity included. To add to the special event, Peter Mondavi, Jr. will be inviting you to bid on an exclusive 27-Liter bottle of Charles Krug, Vintage Selection, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006. The Make-A-Wish Foundation will receive 100 percent of the winning auction bid. So if you are interested in enjoying this fine evening at Morton’s please call Lise Lang at 214-741-2277 or email her at lise_lang@mortons.com.

So whether spending the day outdoors at a shooting range is your thing or spending a nice quiet evening wine tasting is what you like, you should consider both of these events! For more information about each event go to www.northtexas.wish.org

4 weeks until Race for Wishes!

 For those of you who were in Fort Worth today, you might have seen quite a few runners out and about. Today was the annual cow town race. The race includes a marathon, half marathon, ultra marathon, 10k, 5k, and also a children’s 5k race. So needless to say it was a very busy day in Fort Worth. The cow town race is held every year in order to raise health awareness for children not only in the Fort Worth community but also all over the United States. The race goes toward a good cause and also the course is pretty interesting, all the races start and finish at the Will Rogers Memorial Center, which is in the heart of the cultural district in Fort Worth. Around the area include the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, So7 urban neighborhood, Trinity Park, and the UNT Health Science campus, so it is a pretty interesting run. The race was a huge success today and actually the reason why I brought up the cow town race in my blog was to keep you updated about The Race for Wishes.

         

The Race for Wishes that will be held in the DFW area this year will be here before we know it! It is still marked down for Saturday March 26^th. I’ve checked out their website and they have more details posted about the race. I couldn’t believe all the sponsors they have! This year the race is sponsored by Briggs Equipment, Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Cooks Children’s, AllianceData, KPMG, Flowserve, Dave and Buster’s, Park Place Lexus, Centennial Fine Wine & Spirits, BokaPowell Dallas, BokaPowell Fort Worth, Run On, Jay Johnson’s Bootcamp Fitness, Studio Movie Grill, TIAA Creff, and lastly ThermoServe. The amount of sponsors Make-A-Wish is able to have is huge. I also saw on the website that there will be awards given out at the end of the race. Awards will be given to: the top fundraising team, the largest team, the top individual fundraiser, the overall female finisher, the overall male finisher and also the top three males and female finishers starting with 14 and under, and then in five year groups up to age 75 and older. They have also recently posted the times of all the races, opening ceremonies will begin at 8:15 a.m. Jay’s Bootcamp warm-up will begin at 8:20 a.m. the fun run/walk will begin at 8:40 a.m. the 5k will begin at 9 a.m. and all the post event activities will begin at 10 a.m.

        

         The more and more I hear about the Race for Wishes, the more I’m looking forward to attending it. I hope this encourages everyone to at least check out the website for the Race for Wishes, which I posted in a previous post. And also at the end is a little video clip to give you an idea of what the day of the race is like!

Bieber Fever

While everything is still falling into place for Frats-At-Bat and the Make-A-Wish team is just waiting for a few more approvals before everything is set in stone, I thought I would write about a wish that was recently granted.

Over the past few weeks I’ve heard non stop talk about Justin Bieber, whether it’s from the news, magazines, strangers and even some of my friends. Apparently this so called “Bieber Fever” is quite popular, I’ve heard girls from age 3 to 20 express their love for Justin Bieber. Not only have I heard so much about him through the media but also, I recently just learned that he granted a wish for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Monroe, a 5-year-old girl, struggling through cancer had one wish, and that was to meet Justin Bieber. Much to Monroe’s surprise, her wish came true. Monroe and her family were picked up by a limo and taken to Justin’s concert. But it was far more than just a typical concert experience; Monroe was given a backstage escort to meet her favorite popstar. The minute Justin met Monroe he gave her a huge hug and invited Monroe and her family to make themselves at home in his private trailer, they all sat down and talked about whatever was one their mind. Monroe couldn’t believe the excitement that was going on. There were fans everywhere, but she was the only one that was truly backstage! After chatting, Justin gave both Monroe and her sister autographed t-shirts and hats. They were both so excited about everything they could barely sit still! As the concert was about to begin Justin had one more thing to do. He presented a brand-new autographed Gibson guitar, just like the one he uses during his shows, to Monroe. Monroe thought this had been the best day in her whole life and the concert hadn’t even started yet! The show began and her adventure was topped off by a great show. Monroe was so thankful of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and of Justin Bieber for making her wish come true.

Next week I hope to update you all on more of the planning process for Frats-At-Bat! It’s looking like it will be a great weekend! 

Frats-At-Bat is in the works!

As spring is just around the corner in Fort Worth, things are certainly picking up at TCU. Before we know it the school year will be over!

As most of the TCU population is counting down the days until spring break, the TCU Chi O’s Make-A-Wish team is counting down the days until the annual Frats-At-Bat tournament. Planning the annual softball tournament has been in full gear the past few weeks. And the team has experienced that planning an event during a spring weekend at TCU is not a simple task. Working around the other philanthropy events, intramural events, and other sporting events makes this is a much more challenging process. Just finding an open weekend is close to impossible!

The first step of planning Frats-At-Bat is setting the date for the annual two-day softball tournament. The date has been set for April 16^th and 17^th. The past several years the tournament has been held on the intramural fields at TCU, so to keep the tradition going, the tournament will take place on the TCU intramural fields. However, picking the date and location is only the first part of the planning process for the tournament. The Make-A-Wish team also gets together and decides whether or not they want a band or DJ to play during the tournament, and if so, who to have play, currently they are leaning toward a DJ to help keep the fans and players pumped through out the tournament. 

It has also been a tradition to have food catered during Saturday afternoon of the tournament. The past few years the Make-A-Wish team has had a Louisiana crawfish company come out to the intramural fields and host a crawfish boil, though the crawfish boil has been successful the team is thinking about changing it up and possibly having the new and popular Salsa Limon truck come out to cater the event! If you aren’t from Fort Worth you are probably wondering what Salsa Limon is. Salsa Limon is a family owned Mexican restaurant that makes homemade burritos of all kinds. They have steak, chicken, veggie and breakfast burritos that the people in Fort Worth have fallen in love with! People don’t only love their homemade burritos but also the fact that everything on their menu is under $10. So whether or not the team decides on Louisiana crawfish or Salsa Limon we are all hoping the tournament will be as successful if not more successful than the past few years!

After just about all the details of the tournament have been set, the last step is gathering the teams and coaches. About two weeks before the tournament begins, the fraternities will gather and make teams, once the teams are created members of the Chi Omega sorority will be assigned to coach the teams. Then the fun can begin!

Organizing Frats-At-Bat is a very long process but once the weekend finally arrives it is well worth the work! So if you go to TCU or live in the Fort Worth area I encourage everyone to come out on April 16^th and 17^th to watch a few games and support the Make-A-Wish Foundation! 

The dates have been set!

While everyone is counting down the hours until the kickoff of the super bowl, I thought I would go ahead and get all the dates on the calendar for our upcoming events!

The first event coming up, sponsored by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, is the Race for Wishes. The foundation has held this event for several years. It is a 5k run/walk and a 1-mile fun run/walk. Various cities all over the U.S. host the Race for Wishes; it has been an ongoing tradition across the nation! This year the race in the DFW area will be held on Saturday March 26^th. They are still working on an exact time for when the race will begin but it should be posted soon! The race will start in Williams Square in Irving, Texas. Not only can everyone enjoy the run or walk but there will also be a Kids Zone that will include face painting, bounce houses, games, clowns and lots more! The Race for Wishes is an event for the whole family so be sure to bring everyone. You are able to register for the race online, adult registration is $25 and kids ages 5-12 is $15. If you are not able to register online you can register the day of the race, adults will be $35 and kids will still be $15. You can run in teams or just go solo but no matter whether you want to run or walk, the Race for Wishes is a great thing to do, I encourage everyone to at least check out their website to find out more about the race! Don’t forget to put on your running shoes for March 26^th!  Race For Wishes Registration

Next on the calendar is the Chi Omega’s Texas Rangers night. Over the past few years the TCU Chi O’s have set a deal with the Texas Rangers where they pick one game out of the season and sell tickets to other students, friends, parents, teachers, whoever and out of all the tickets they sell, at least $5 of each ticket is donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Just last year more than $1,000 was raised for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. So the next game has been set! The Chi O’s at TCU will be selling Texas Rangers tickets for the game on Tuesday April 5^th at 7:05 p.m. The Texas Rangers will be playing the Seattle Mariners. And for those of you who aren’t big baseball fans, the Rangers made it to the World Series just this past season so this should be a good season to watch! The Chi O’s will be selling tickets outside the TCU library from 11-2 on March 28^th-March 31^st. You are able to buy seats in the lower bleachers for $15 or seats in the lower reserved section for $30. But for both seats, $5 of the ticket will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

 

So put these dates in your calendar and start gathering your team for the race and your buddies for the game!

ESPN grants a wish!

While I was deciding what to blog about this week I happened to come across a story that I couldn't have found at a more perfect time.

As we all know the super bowl is coming up in just a few days so while we anticipate the game between the Packers and Steelers, make bets, and trash talk the other team I thought it might not be such a bad idea for all of us to hear this story.

Anna Schmidt, a 13-year-old from Horicon, Wisconsin, has a love for football, especially the Green Bay Packers. However, her regular football watching Sunday afternoons came to a halt after a trip to the doctor. Anna had been experiencing stomach aches and a cough that she couldn’t seem to get rid of. At first, both her parents and doctors thought it might just be asthma or possibly acid buildup. However, not long after a few tests were taken, Anna’s life took a dramatic turn. She was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, she had a heart that was big in size but small in function. Anna’s heart was quickly failing so her options on treatment were limited. She was first placed on medicine, the medicine began to work wonders but she was only able to take it for so long before it would cause other complications in her body so they needed another plan.

It wasn’t long before doctors realized Anna needed a heart transplant. She was placed on the transplant list but while waiting for a donor her heart was continually failing. After undergoing a 17 hour surgery they inserted an artificial heart in Anna until a donor could be found. The artificial heart was keeping her alive but not by much. She had been experiencing blood clots and strokes from the pump, so doctors were changing out the pump once a week, which is a dangerous procedure. And just when the Schmidts thought things couldn’t get any worse, a CT scan showed a hemorrhage in Anna’s brain. The Schmidts were doing their best to keep their hopes up high but things were not looking good.

A few weeks later things started looking up when the Schmidts received a call from the doctors saying they found Anna a transplant. Within 48 hours of the surgery Anna was feeling like a normal 13-year-old again.

Anna checking out her new locker

What she didn’t see coming though was her wish being granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. While Anna was undergoing all these procedures the Make-A-Wish Foundation asked her if she could wish for anything what would it be? Anna’s one wish was to meet the players on the Green Bay Packers, especially her favorites, Al Harris and Aaron Rodgers. Much to her surprise Al Harris and Aaron Rodgers sent Anna a video asking her and her family to join them at a practice. Anna and her family were picked up by a limo and taken Lambeau Field. When she walked onto the field, Packers fans were lined up cheering to support her. She even had a personalized Packers locker and uniform custom made right next to the qaurterbacks, Aaron Rodgers, locker. Mike McCarthy, the Packers head coach, introduced Anna to each player and let her close the practice with a “break!”

Anna’s day with the Packers was something that she will remember forever, she could not have been happier on that day! I’m assuming this weekend she’ll be cheering them on!

Go Packers.

To see Anna's story check out this link: Anna's Wish Video

Welcoming the new 2011 Make-A-Wish Team

Being on the Make-A-Wish team for the TCU Chi O's is no easy task, we recently just elected our new team so I thought I would introduce you to each new member.

The 2011 Make-A-Wish chair is Miss Hannah Livingston. Hannah is a junior Child Development major from Dallas, Texas. When Hannah's not in school she loves to travel. She recently spent two months in South Africa working with underprivileged kids; while she was there she was also able to enjoy skydiving across Cape Town, cage diving with great whites and touring the country! Hannah's position as the Make-A-Wish chair is a busy job. She oversees all the positions we have on the team and makes sure everything is running smoothly. Hannah does a tremendous amount of work to keep our events up and running.

However, Hannah can’t do it all by herself. Her right hand man, Brooke Young is the Make-A-Wish chair assistant. Brooke is a sophomore Advertising/Public Relations and Psychology double major from Seattle, Washington. In her spare time she loves reading, cooking, photography and scrap booking! Brooke’s position as the Make-A-Wish chair assistant helps with the overflow of responsibilities for the Make-A-Wish chair.

Grace Hughston, our team’s auction leader, is from San Angelo, Texas. Grace is a Marketing major at TCU’s Neeley School of Business. On top of being in the Neeley School of Business, Grace is also in a two-year leadership program that focuses on developing leadership skills. When she isn’t in school she loves to cook meals for herself and for her roommates, as well as painting! Grace’s position as the Make-A-Wish auction leader is to collect and set up all 150-auction items from the members of our sorority. She is also in charge of the entire set up of the auction, which includes a sit down dinner and a band. The Chi Omega auction has been very successful over the past few years. Just last year the auction raised more than $23,000 for Make-A-Wish.

Haley Luter, a sophomore Advertising/Public Relations major with minors in Art and Business from Allen, Texas shares the job of our Make-A-Wish team’s Advertising and Public Relations Chair. Haley is joined by Meg Brown, a junior Advertising/Public Relations major with a minor in Sociology from Boston, Massachusetts. Both Haley and Meg love to be outdoors, watch movies, hang out with friends and cook! Their job on the Ad/PR team consists of promoting all the numerous events we host through out the year. Whether it’s making flyers for Frats-At-Bat or sending out emails for the Race for Wishes, they have it covered!

Madeline Nagel, a freshman nursing major from Austin, Texas is head of our Corporate Sponsor position. Madeline loves to read, run, dance and hang out with her family. Her position as our Corporate Sponsor consists of contacting local businesses in order to raise awareness about the Make-A-Wish Foundation and also ask for donations for Make-A-Wish.

The TCU Chi O’s 2011 Make-A-Wish team is a great group of girls, I think working together they will do a tremendous job and have a huge impact on the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

That is all for now, see you all next week!

Make-A-Wish

For those of you who do not know what the Make-A-Wish Foundation is, I'm going to give you a little background about the foundation. The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a program that raises money to grant wishes to children with life threatening illnesses. The foundation began in 1980 after a few people got together and decided to grant the wish of 7-year-old Chris Greicius. Chris was courageously battling leukemia and did not have long to live, but his one wish was to become a police officer.

Chris Greicius

         The foundation was able to find a United States customs officer who developed a friendship with both Chris and his mother. The officer gave Chris a ride in a police helicopter to their headquarters where he was personally greeted with three police cars and a motorcycle. After Chris’ tour of the headquarters they surprised him with a custom tailored official DPS uniform. Chris’ dream of becoming a police officer came true through just a few people wanting to grant the wish of a 7-year-old. His inspiration sparked the founding of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Today, the Make-A-Wish Foundation has created 203, 278 wishes, which is one wish every 40 minutes.

         
Now that you know a little bit more about what the Make-A-Wish Foundation does I am going to inform you about their alliance with the Chi Omega sorority. In 2002 Chi Omega created an alliance with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Chi Omegas across the United States have raised over $5.5 million through philanthropic events. The Chi O’s host several events throughout the school year to raise money, although events may differ at every university.

 At TCU, home of the horned frogs in Fort Worth, Texas, the Chi O’s host three main events and participate in one throughout the school year to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The Chi O’s first event is during September; they host a silent auction that in the past few years averages an income of around $20,000. During March the Chi O’s form a team to run in the “Race for Wishes.” This is an annual race that occurs in the Dallas – Fort Worth area to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The Chi O’s second event occurs in April when they have a sports night and sell group tickets to a sporting event, last year the Chi O’s sold tickets for a Texas Rangers game and ended up making over $1,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. And lastly, the Chi O’s biggest event of the year is the Frats-At-Bat tournament that happens every year in April. The TCU Chi O’s form together softball teams that consists of all fraternity members. So to make the tournament more fun, the girls coach the boys. It is a two-day tournament that creates fun competition for a good cause. Over the next ten weeks I will be informing you all about the upcoming events that will eventually lead to Frats-At-Bat!

Frats-At-Bat 2010

To learn more about the Make-A-Wish Foundation please go to: http://www.wish.org