Jerry Turns 24

It's so hard to believe that Jerry was 19 when he broke his neck and he just turned 24 yesterday. In some respects it seems like so long ago, so much has changed since then and in some respect it seems like it was just yesterday. We celebrated Jerry's birthday with a small impromptu party at my house with friends and family. Thanks Donna, Kelsey, Cheryl, Jessica, Jacob, Ian, Janea and Pepe for helping us celebrate Jerry's birthday.  Also thank you to Brittany and Lauren for calling Jerry on his birthday, I know it may seem hard to tell but it really meant a lot to him to hear live voices from friends.

It's equally hard to believe that in less than 65 hours we will be on a plane headed for Thailand for Jerry to finally receive the stem cell treatment we've worked so hard to attain. Even though Jerry is not very expressive at this point, I know he is excited and hopeful that the treatment will improve his condition. I am excited and so hopeful but at the same time a little nervous about traveling alone with Jerry.

It looks like we will be able to see a few sites while we are in Thailand, Jerry will be in therapy 6 days a week but will have Sundays off, we will have 5 Sundays to go touristing. It turns out the subway is walking distance from the hospital so we can take the subway to go site-seeing. So far we will spend one Sunday going to the Grand Palace and one day going to the Zoo. I'd love to hear from you if you know of any MUST SEE's in Thailand. I will be sure to post lots of pictures and update often.

Katie

Thank You!

The spaghetti feed was a great success, it far exceeded my highest expectation. I really didn't know what to expect, as of 5 days prior to the feed I had only received 4 RSVP's. We decided to be on the safe side and plan to feed 300, however I was worried if we would even get 50 ...enough to pay for food. By the weeks end we had gotten about 40 RSVP's, I was able to have peace of mind we would at least make our money back. It's funny how things work out, it's almost as if God planted a seed in my head ...plan for 300, even though I truly didn't expect more than 80 to 100, I still planned on having 300. I'm happy to say that over the course of the 4 hours we had at least 300 and maybe a little over. The day went so smooth, the food was spectacular thanks to Steve Carlson, trust me if I had cooked it some of you may have requested a refund, lol. The music was fabulous, thanks to the band the LEFTOVERS and Kelsy Brose, you guys were amazing!!! Thank you to everyone who helped with set up, clean up, serving, cooking, guardians of the door and a huge THANK YOU to all who came to support us. We raised just over $10,000, which brings me to my next question...Why is it when your shocked your mouth drops open? After getting the final tally, I don't think I could close my mouth for at least 30 seconds, lol. This community is so caring, supportive and generous, I am truly blessed to call this place home.

 Below is a thank you that I posted to facebook, I thought I would post it here as well for those that helped but don't have facebook.....

I want to thank each and every one of you that have contributed to making our fundraising efforts successful.We have promoted the gofundme donation page, the spaghetti feed, sponsorship letters and the blog. To those that supported us in helping circulate through facebook by liking and sharing once or till you were blue in the face I THANK YOU! To those that donated money be it friend, family, acquaintance or complete stranger, I THANK YOU! To all those that came to the spaghetti feed to donate and show support, I THANK YOU! To all those that volunteered their time to help make the spaghetti feed a success, I THANK YOU! To Sharon and Donna, for lighting the fire under my butt, keeping me motivated, and the countless hours you put in to all of this, I THANK YOU!

Four years ago when Jerry broke his neck we set out to take him overseas for stem cell therapy, a goal was set to raise $40,000 to get Jerry treatment. The fundraising efforts of 2009 raised enough money to cover some of Jerry's equipment needs, his functional electrical stem bike, aggressive physical therapy, modifications to the home and a handicap van. I was able to save $10,000 of that money for stem cell treatment. We set out a few months ago determined to raise the remaining $30,000 needed for Jerry to receive treatment. I am happy to report that to date we have raised $20,000. So to ALL of you that have helped in anyway I am grateful and I THANK YOU!!!!

Leap of Faith

I've taken a few leaps of faith in this journey to get stem cell treatment for Jerry and every step of the way God has confirmed he's got my back, once again I have been blessed with an incredible gift. One of my biggest concerns can now be put to rest, Jerry will now be able to travel safely and comfortably to Thailand in FIRST CLASS. I was so worried that Jerry would not be able to sustain a 20 hour flight in the upright position, and even more scary was the threat of Pulmonary Embolism from the lack of space to move Jerry's legs. I am so thankful to put those fears to rest as the seats in first class will recline and even lay down into a bed, I will have all the space I need to manipulate Jerry's legs and lay him down to keep him comfortable. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to an organization called Airline Ambassadors International ...AAI donated the flyer miles needed to get Jerry in first class. The AAI team worked diligently to make this happen for us and words cannot express the immense gratitude I feel for all they have done. I would like to give a special thank you to Sandy who was in constant contact with me during the process of making this work, she and I had correspondence till late in the night and throughout the weekend, Sandy went above and beyond...God bless her! The unfortunate down side to AAI helping me is that it depleted their flyer miles bank, so I ask you followers of Jerry to consider donating flyer miles to AAI to help replenish their bank. If you have some extra miles and would like to help replenish their bank you click here and look for Airline Ambassadors on this page to donate flyer miles.

The local papers have written articles about Jerry, if you would like to read the articles you can find the  Santa Cruz Sentinel article here, unfortunately the Press/ Banner article was not online you would of had to live locally to see it in the paper. Thank you to both papers for helping us get the word out about the spaghetti feed and fundraising efforts.

Hope to see you all at the spaghetti feed...