$29,639

Do you see that number?  Do you SEE THAT NUMBER?  That is what we raised at Finley's race this past weekend.  We are BLOWN away.

I know it has been a whole week since you have heard from me, but this past week we were so busy, blogging got pushed aside.  We were in Pennsylvania for the week before the race getting everything ready, and enjoying time with family.

But now, the big day is over.  We had a great day.  60+ volunteers, 3 RDH12 families present, and almost $30,000 raised.  What an amazing day.

I will have pictures from the event soon.  I am waiting for my dad to send them to me in the mail, and then I will post them.  We have a lot of great shots we want to share with everyone.

We cannot thank the city of Connellsville, all the people who attended, and all the volunteers that helped our day go off without a hitch.  We were busy from beginning to end, but the day was beautiful.

Thank you to everyone for making this year more amazing than the last.  We raised DOUBLE what we raised last year.  My goal was $20,000, and we made almost $30,000.  We couldn't have done it without you!

Here is a picture of Finley and Bella - another little girl who has RDH12 LCA.

 Here is a picture of the Kinney family, the Fiore Family and us - all there for our RDH12 kids.

down to the wire

We are almost there everyone!  We have two more days for pre-registration, so please get your forms to us, or register online (click 'Online Registration" there on the right hand side of this page and it will take you right there)

If you are racing, please plan on arriving between 8-8:45 so that we can get everyone signed in.  Also, if you can, please bring a new or GENTLY used children's book to donate to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on Finley's behalf.  They are in need of new books.

All the baskets are ready.  All of the race packets are ready.  All the shirts are in - they look great!

So all we need is you.  Please come down and see us and help us reach our goal this year of $20,000!

The race is a comin'

Now that we are in Connellsville, you are going to be sick of me.  Finley's race is one week from today.  We have 199 people registered.  Who is going to be number 200?  They get a special prize!!  Either register online or send in your form.  Monday is the cut off for a guaranteed shirt for race day.  But don't fret - if you don't make it, we will still get you a shirt and you will get it the week after the race.  I promise!

A couple of reminders.

If you have registered to run/walk, please plan on being there between 8:00-8:45 so that we can get you signed in, get your bib number to the timer, and get you to the start.  The 10K run  starts at 9am SHARP, so please come early to sign in.

Please bring a new or slightly used children's book on the race day.  We are donating all the books to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on Finley's behalf after the race.  Help us make a huge donation!!

If you have any questions, please contact us.  You can leave a comment here, or email me at rdh12@rdh12.org

See you soon!

Basket Raffle

I know, I know - it has been forever since I posted a picture.  I have been so swamped that I have not remembered to grab the camera!

Arlington and I spent the day at our local town's fireman's muster.  Our local town's fire department turned 100 years old.  Pretty amazing.  It was fun.  I had a booth there and sold raffle tickets for our upcoming basket raffle and we had a little game.  We made $430 for our fund just in those few hours.  Baskets were REALLY popular today!

So - I figured now I have all the information on all the baskets that we are giving away, so I am going to post their pictures and info here tonight.  If you are coming to the race, you can buy basket raffle tickets that day.  You can write a check to the RDH12 Fund for Sight or you can bring cash.

If you CAN'T come to the race, but want to buy tickets, you can!  Take a look at the baskets here, and you can email me at rdh12@rdh12.org and I can talk you through the details.  Or you can go online to our online registration and JUST get basket raffle tickets and pay with your credit card.  Same thing - once I get your basket raffle payment, I will contact you and you can tell me what baskets you want the tickets in. :)  We can get the basket to you - anywhere!

Here is the online registration area for tickets:  BASKET RAFFLE.  

So - we have separated the raffle into two parts this year.  We have a SILVER and a GOLD raffle.  In the Silver raffle, we have the most baskets.  These baskets go for $2/ticket, $5/6 tickets, or $20/25 tickets.  The Gold raffle are our biggest items, so these baskets go for $5/ticket, $40/10 tickets.

First, SILVER RAFFLE

Now for the GOLD BASKETS:

Getting closer to race day

Hi everyone! We are getting really close now.  2 1/2 weeks, and the event will be here, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send in your race forms, or register online.

If you have signed up to volunteer, you STILL need to send in your race form, so we have your shirt size and that you are eating lunch.

We want to have most of the pre-registrants shirts ordered by next week, so I need you to put your form in the mail right now, or go online here:

RACE REGISTRATION

And sign up for the race.  It is a big job for our shirt printer to get the shirts on time for the race, so the more we have in to him a week or so before the race, the better your chance of having a shirt on race day. 

The baskets are almost all complete, so pictures of those will be coming soon!

REGISTER TODAY!!!!

Finley's 5K/10K is getting close now.  We are 22 days away!  It is crunch time, and time for you to send in your registration.

We want this to be our biggest event yet.  We are hoping to make $20,000 this year at this race - can you help us reach that goal?

The day is going to be so fun.  You don't want to miss it.  Finley, and our whole family will be there all day.  We want to see you.  We want to meet you.  We want to thank you for all the support you have shown us these last three years.

If you received a form from us, fill it out now.  If you didn't, but still want to come, you can email me at rdh12@rdh12.org and I can email you a form, OR you can go online and register here:

REGISTRATION

So easy, right?  You can register online, pay by credit card, and you are done.  You can even buy your raffle tickets online if you want to!  We will have them in your race day packet the day of the race, and you can take them and put them in the baskets of your choice.  SO EASY.

So register today.  Next week we are putting in our first shirt order.  We can only guarantee you a shirt on race day if you register by August 12th.  After that, you can still pay the pre-registration cost, but you may not get a shirt the day of.  We will do our best, but the earlier you register, the better your chances.

So come and join us!  Music!  Bounce house!  Face Painting!  Baskets!  Food!  Fun!  You don't want to miss it.

Get your race forms in today! :)

Alright everyone - we are inching closer and closer to the big day.  The race forms are coming in, and we are in full planning mode.

We can only guarantee you will get a shirt on the day of the race if you register by August 10th, so go to the counter right now, get that race form, and fill it out.

I will wait........

Okay?

Now, go get a stamp.  I am very patient.......

da de da da dum.......

Got it?  Not put it next to your keys so that in the morning, you will put it in the mailbox.  So easy!

Don't have a stamp?  Not a problem!  You can simply register online RIGHT NOW.

You are reading this online, so you are at your computer.  My feelings will not be hurt if you leave this page to go and register.  Let me make it easy for you.  Look to the right. She those words that say "Online Race Registration"?

Click on that, and it will take you right there!  You can even buy basket raffle tickets and we will have them ready for you at the race.  Then you can put them in the baskets you choose!

If you cannot come to the race, and would like to make a donation or buy raffle tickets, you may still do that either by sending in your form or online.

Please make checks out to RDH12 Fund for Sight.

Thank you so much for your support!  See you in August!

Race Trophies

The trophies for the 5K/10K arrived a few days ago, and they are beautiful.  They are hand carved by an amazing woman named Sarah from Sima Designs.

She does amazing work.  I just can't stop looking at them.

The people who win the races are going to be lucky people to have her amazing work.

Also - she made the keychains that we are giving away at the race.  Our first 250 race participants will get a FREE keychain with their race packet courtesy of the Lions/Lioness Club of Connellsville.

Aren't they great?

Below are the trophies.  Enjoy!!

These are the pictures of the 5K run trophies.  They say RUN in braille:

 On the back of every trophy, she carved our race logo and website:

 These are the 10 K run trophies (don't worry we have both male and female winners!!)

 These are the 5K walk trophies. They say "walk" in braille:

 These are the 1K fun run trophies:

Now I KNOW you want to come to our fundraiser! :)

Sneak Peak of the raffle quilt

This year, as part of our "bigger" raffle prizes that we were be offering a hand made quilt made by my wonderful mother in law, Sally Pletcher.  She lovingly put this quilt together and it is utterly amazing.  I have never seen a quilt so well done.  It also had a very unique machine quilted top that turned out beautiful.

I had her take some pictures so that you could see it, but wait until you see it in person.  And if you can't join us on August 25th, and would like to bid on this little beauty, let me know!  You don't have to be there to bid and to win!!  Tickets are $5/each.

Enjoy!!

Finish Line Sponsor

Today we received our Finish Line sponsor for our race!  Thank you to the Tribune Review for this sponsorship.  We are so excited!!

Baskets are being made

Okay we have almost all of our baskets!! We are still working through all the details of each one, so once those are in and I have pictures, I will share. But here is what we will be having:

For the regular raffle:

Hair care from an amazing Hair salon
Toy basket
Children's book/relax basket
Veggie tales basket
Sand Hill berries basket
Scrapbook basket
Tastefully simple/Summer fun basket
Games basket
Common Scents basket
Pens Hockey basket
Gardening basket
Board with: Children's Museum and Children's Science center passes plus gift cards
Board with: Pirates tickets and dinner out gift cards
Board with: Carmike Cinema tickets and gift cards

Kitchen basket

And I think one or two more baskets still to come!!

For the BIG raffle:
American Girl (with some REALLY amazing stuff along with McKenna doll)
Disney Basket with the 4 park hopper passes and some AMAZING add ons
Quilt made by my amazing mother in law Sally Pletcher
Bicycle

You can bid on the baskets even if you aren't coming! We did it last year and are doing it again. So once they are all together and we have pictures,if you want to bid, we can get the basket to you if you win!!

Event Sponsor

We would like to announce our event sponsor for this event.  We have a large list of wonderful sponsors, so far.  Our largest sponsor is for our whole event, and this year it is

Cornerstone Appraisals.

We sincerely thank them for being our event sponsor this year!

And the winner is......

Janelle Cummings of Connellsville High School!

I have changed the image on the top of this page to this years race logo.  We had a contest and we had 30 entries.  There were so many good ones - it was hard to choose.

But in the end, Janelle's fit everything we were looking for.

It will be on all the race t-shirts we give out this year, plus on a lot of our products that we use throughout the year.

If you know Janelle - congratulate her on a job well done!

Race registrations have started to go out in the mail.  Look for yours soon!  Get them in as soon as possible so that we can start to make a head count.  OR - you can click on the link on the right and register for the race RIGHT NOW!

Race Brochures

They will be going out in the mail in about two weeks.  If you are getting a newsletter from us as well, you will be getting your race brochure a little sooner.

Please fill it out and send it back in, or go online and register as soon as you receive the brochure so that we can start to get a count for t-shirts, meals, etc.

I know it is only May but this event is like planning a wedding.  The more time we get to work on it, the better!!

We can't wait to see everyone on August 25th.

Getting closer to the race

Hi everyone!  The brochures are being printed, and will soon be coming in the mail or hand delivered.  We hope you all put August 25th on your calendar.  We want this race to be BIGGER than last year.  More participants!  Bigger raffle prizes!  More fun!

The t-shirt contest is over, and Mat and I will be picking the 2012 race design over the next week.  Once we have chosen it, we will share it with all of you.  Some of the ones we have seen so far look great.  I know it will be a hard decision.

If you didn't notice - on the side bar on the right is a way to register for the race online and pay by credit card.  You by no means have to do use this, but if you want - it is there for you.  You can pay by credit card for the race, lunch, basket raffle tickets - it is a nice set up.  You can also go to this website and register, but print out and mail in your registration and pay by check.  You don't have to wait for the mailers that will come in May - you can register now!

If you know you are able to come, we encourage you to register early.  Pre-registration will help us get a count for food, and shirts.  BUT - walk-ins on the day of the race are ALWAYS, ALWAYS welcome.  We know life sometimes gets in the way, and some decisions need to be made last minute - so don't worry - you can come the day of the race, register, eat, raffle, and have fun!  The cost is a bit higher on race day than pre-registration, and that pays to cover the cost of having to mail you your race shirts.

Please read the post below, or go to the Race Registration page online to find out all the details.  We are getting more and more sponsors every day.  Today in the mail came a signed Andrew Clements - a famous children's author - book.  We had written to him and told him about Finley and he sent a signed book and a lovely note.  It was pretty awesome.  That will be included in our signed book basket we will be giving away!

And don't forget - Disney tickets!  American girl!  Bicycle!  Homemade quilt!  Plus many, many other baskets at the raffle - it is going to be amazing.

The kids will have a lot to do - bounce house, face painting, balloon animals.....tons of fun for the whole family

Please consider coming to the event.  It has been so much fun, and this proving to be the biggest year yet.  We have a $20,000 goal this year with this event.  I know you can help us reach it!

 Some of you have told us you can't make it, but would like to make a donation.  Please make checks out to RDH12 Fund for Sight when you do - all donations are tax deductible and EVERY CENT you donate goes to research - no overhead!  We are very proud of that.  You can also make a donation online using your credit card through the Race site (click on the link on the right).

Thank you for helping us reach our goal!!

Starting to pull it all together

This blog will be where you can link (look to your right) to registering and finding out information for Finley's 5K, 10K, 1 mile fun run on August 25th, 2012.

As most of you know, our daughter, Finley was diagnosed with Lebers Congenital Amaurosis - a blinding disease - in 2009.  We found out about a year later that it was a caused by a RDH12 gene defect.  She has about 10% usable vision, is missing her central vision, and she has poor peripheral sight.  She will be completely blind sometime in her teenage years without a cure.  Our foundation - the RDH12 Fund for Sight - was developed to raise money for research for a cure.  We are lucky that the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Jean Bennett are working on a cure.  In 2010 we gave them a grant for $70,000 to start the research, and things are going very well.  She has the cure developed, and now is getting ready to take the next step, which is a safety study.  That cost $250,000, which our foundation raised this last year.

Next will be to pay for human, clinical trials.  This cost will be in the millions, and we will be receiving help from grants for this enormous cost.  But the RDH12 Fund for Sight will be pulling their weight to make sure that the clinical trials are successful.  We have a goal of $400,000 for this coming year, and so our events have to be bigger than ever.  Can we do it?  Of course!  Because we have amazing friends, family, supporters who help us reach each new goal each year.

We are excited to "step up" our event this year and make it an official timed 5K/10K.  We are also going to have a 1 mile fun run.  There will be beautiful hand carved trophies for our top finishers.  I can't wait for you to see them.  They are amazing.

I am getting an early start on the event this year so that everyone has a chance to put the event on their calendar.  We don't want you to miss it!  It is going to be an amazing time.

We will be having a lot of the same things that we had in the past years.  There will be a race shirt, along with your race registration.  We will be having lunch.  We will have the bounce house, the face painting, and the balloon animals for the kids.  We are having it in the same place we did last year- Yough Trail - in the same pavillion, right next to the playground.

We will be having another amazing basket raffle.  I already have many volunteers stepping up to make big, beautiful baskets for you to bid on.

And even better - on top of our regular basket raffle, we are having a little more "elite" raffle.  It will include a basket that has Disneyworld passes, a basket with an American Girl doll and goodies, a Handmade quilt basket that my mother in law did COMPLETELY by hand (it is really gorgeous), and a bicycle.

And who knows - there may be more BIG add-ons as time goes on.....you will just have to keep an eye on this blog and wait and see.

Another change this year will be our offer for online registration.  Due to the fact that we are hoping to draw a larger crowd that includes many avid runners/walkers, we are hoping online registration and credit card payment will help many families and race participants.

In hopefully a week or two, that link will be live on the side of this blog, so that you can go straight to the race site and register.  YOU IN NO WAY HAVE TO REGISTER OR PAY ONLINE.  It is just an option we thought would be good to add since our race is getting so big.

You CAN do a couple of things.  In the beginning of May, our race registrations will go out in the mail.  You can use that and mail it back in, or hand deliver it to my parents along with your check payment.  Or - you can go online and register, print it out, and mail THAT in with your check.  And the last option will be just to register or pay online.  All three choices get you to the same goal - coming to our GREAT event for Finley in August.

The event will start at 9am for the 10K run.  9:30am for the 5K run,  9:40 for the 5K walk, and 10am for the 1 mile fun run.  Lunch will be served from 11-1pm, and the event will end at 2pm.

The cost of the event will be:
Pre-regirations: $20/person or $55/family (3 people or more) - includes participation in any of the races, a race t-shirt, brailled bookmark, and lunch.

$25/person or $60/family (3 people or more) if you pay on RACE DAY.  It includes everything from above.

Spirit Runner:  Don't want to run/walk? You can still participate!  $18/person or $50/family (3 or more) gets you a race t-shirt, brailled bookmark, and lunch

Lunch only - $5/person.  No t-shirt with this option

Children under 3 are free for lunch and registration.

 If anyone has any questions, you can email us at rdh12@rdh12.org.  Or you can leave a comment below and I will back to you.  And keep checking back to this site.  I will be going through facebook, and my regular blog, and email to let you know when to expect updates on here as well.

But right now - go to your calendar and mark August 25th, 2012 on your calendar as your day you will help Finley and move us one step closer to a cure for her blindness.  We can't do it without your support.  All of you should be patting yourselves on the back for how far you have helped us come so far.  We are further than we would EVER be if we didn't have your support and your belief in a cure.

And soon, you will get to say that you were part of curing a little girl from ever going blind.  That when Finley is an adult, she will look back at this as a bump in the road in life.  That when she goes on a hike with her own children, she will get to see the sunset with her own eyes.  That she will get to look at the faces of her own babies.  That is what we fight for every day.  And it will all be because YOU were there with us fighting.