Thinking

Mat and I have been doing some serious thinking about what our next fundraiser is going to be for Finley.  We are in a new area, and we have new people to teach about LCA and RDH12.  We would like to do at least two big fundraisers a year and have several small ones in between and so, my mind has been reeling on what to do next.

Mat and I are thinking that we would like to try a dinner in the dark.  For those of you who are not familiar with this concept - it really is house it sounds.  You eat dinner.....in the dark.  The reason being, is to show what it would be like if you were blind and trying to have dinner.  It is done quite often among the fundraising crowd for retinal degenerations.  It is unique, and we thought we would like to try it.  I am hoping that it does several things - make a lot of money for the fund (of course), but also bring about more awareness for what it is really like for people who can't see at meal times.  The servers will all have night vision goggles, and all the food will be in front of the people before the lights are turned out, but the meal would be in the dark.  Does this sounds interesting to you?

I have also decided that our Fund needs a quarterly newsletter.  We want to make sure that all the wonderful people who have donated their time, their money, and their prayers to Finley and to the other children in our RDH12 Fund for Sight know that when an event is over, their charity is not forgotten.  It will be a great way for all the families to update everyone on how their kids are doing, what is up and coming with the fund, the research, and fundraisers.  We are going to put out our first newsletter in early November, so October will be spent getting it all together.  So - if you are a friend of ours, on our mailing list, or have donated - expect a newsletter in the near future!

Mat has also been thinking it is time to contact our local reps and senators. We are going to need their help in getting NIH's (National Institue of Health) attention for funding for the last step.(the one AFTER the next step, which we are covering with our RDH12 Fund funds).  We need to get NIH's attention that this is something they want to put their money toward.  And with NIH getting tighter and tighter with their money, it isn't going to be easy.


Always thinking.  Always planning and hopefully it will all pay off in the end.


By the way - an LCA mommy of mine asked me to be a guest blogger and so I wrote a little post for her about Finley.  Check out her cool blog here:  http://livingwithlca.com/2011/09/guest-blogger-jennifer-pletcher/