Friday, February 18, 2011

Sit-A-Thon Journal of Events






1) 6:00 pm and our Sit A Thon is officially beginning. We are still in arrival mode. Our sitters will board "Raining Hope One" airlines. They will travel 24 hours to Uganda. I will update you on their journey! Please pray!
Brad & Kim Silva were there to see Tiffany off! Linda Morgan was suppose to be one of our sitters. Because her husband is on call...she was not able to join us. But she came by to see us off! Linda made a quilt out of the African material I bring back from Uganda! She donated it to the silent auction.
We gave the sitters their own “Raining Hope blankets” embroidered with our logo. (Thank’s to Eydie’s sister, Melanie for her work on the blankets!) We also gave them each a “Hope” baseball cap. Everyone brought their own chairs with wheels. Cool to watch everyone gliding around the room on wheels! Hilarious to see Kiana try to help with the heater controls on the wall...from her chair!
2) 8 o'clock and our "sit a thon flight" is well on its way! We have eight passengers "flying from LAX to Enebbe!" We have 4 more passengers that will join us on our "layover." We have had 6 people already come to send us off. Carol’s friend, Deena & her family came by and brought us Rice Krispie treats! Sylvia’s husband, Manuel & son, Jeremy were among our supporters!
3) 8:30 pm - We have raised $544! Also we have had 7 visitors...not 6! Praise the Lord! The team is in the "lounge" playing Scattegories, card games & working on a puzzle!
4) 10:30 pm...we have raised $1,088!!! Wow!!!! We just had our inflight meal...make your own pizza! Best airlines ever! Movie will begin soon!
5) Inflight movie..."Singing in the Rain!" We had fresh popped popcorn in souvenir popcorn containers! We had a pre-short "live" version of "Beauty and the Beast!" Kiana and Tiffany did a rendition of Beauty & the Beast in 4 minutes! SO COOL! You had to be there!
6) 12:30 am...$1632! The passengers are starting to doze. The inflight movie is still playing. Quiet in the cabin now!
7) 1:30 am... $1925! We also just had another passenger join us in "Dubai." Peter Kolek worked until 11 am...then drove in from Orange County. What dedication! We now have 9 sitters!
8) Some of the passengers decided to get a little sleep after the movie. Remember...they have to sleep “sitting up!” With Peter’s arrival, that gave Tiffany & Kiana a second wind to stay wide awake! We couldn’t get the heater to work properly. It was COLD!!!! Everyone bundled up in blankets, jackets, socks, caps... brrrr....!!!
9) 2:30 am ... $2224! Eydie worked in the “Agape Room” getting the silent auction & African crafts set up for visitors on Saturday. Moved Peter, Tiffany & Kiana in the agape room as they were playing Scattegories! Wanted to keep the “main cabin” quiet for those that wanted to sleep. Heather joined them after she got some rest.
10) 3:15 am – Eydie decided to lay her head down for 45 minutes.
11) 4:00 am – Eydie decided that 45 minutes was just not enough!
12) 4:45 am – Eydie got back up to finish preparations for the day
13) 5:45 am - Some are just now dozing off to sleep a little...others who have been sleeping are starting to wake up and move around. Eydie will be making breakfast soon.
14) 7:30 am! Lights on in the cabin! Breakfast...pancakes, scrambled eggs, & sausage! Larry Blevins surprised us and brought a box of donuts! He stayed and joined us for breakfast!
15) 10:30 am...16th hour and we have raised $4,448! Wow! Everyone is now awake. We have had breakfast...Carol's sister, brother-in-law and mom just came by to cheer us on! Her friend, Susie also stopped by. We are thankful for our loved ones who are giving moral support. Love you all
16) Check it out! This is in the local Camarillo Acorn paper!
Sit-athon raises money for Uganda | www.thecamarilloacorn.com | Camarillo Acorn
http://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/news/2011-02-11/Family/Sitathon_raises_money_for_Uganda.html
17) 12:30 pm...we are at $5016! Lunch was served! We had chicken salad sandwiches, ham sandwiches, broccoli salad & chips! We just had 2 more visitors come to lend moral support. (Nancy’s husband & Denise’s husband!) Helps so much to have visitors! Time is actually passing very quickly. Relay races soon!
18) We are in the home stretch! 3:30 pm...$6,132! We just did relay races in chairs...jumped rope...and the cupid shuffle. Hilarious! Please join us at 6 pm to celebrate with us if you are close by!
First, Carol played “duck, duck goose” with some of the other passengers! It was so funny to watch them chase each other in their chairs! She said this was the first time she has ever been able to participate in relay races! They raced in their chairs to drop M& M’s in bowls. Another involved a ball of yarn that they needed to inter-twine themselves to one another! The funniest one was watching them “jump rope!” Yes...jumping rope without leaving their chairs!
We realized that this would be the last team time we had before everyone started arriving for the Celebration Dinner. We used this team time to talk about the event as a whole. It was amazing to hear the effect the sit-a-thon had on each individual. This group had bonded together in a very unique way. The team work that existed because of a common cause was very inspiring. We talked about the relay races and the lessons learned from each game. We are already talking about our reunion!
Thanks to Jeremy Hernandez who came by with pots & pans for us to use. He also went out and picked up our cake for dessert.
19) 4:00 pm – Victor the maintenance man for the church came to help us set up for the Celebration Dinner. Some of our sitters had saved up so much time that they used up some of their credit minutes to help Victor set up tables.
20) 4:30 pm – Kim Silva arrived to help Eydie in the kitchen! Cooking chicken enchiladas, mexican rice, & corn!
21) 5:30 pm – People were starting to arrive. Mike Beesley also helped in the kitchen! Met the pastor from 1st Presbyterian.

WE MADE IT! At 5:59 we successfully counted down to the completion of our 24 hour sit-a-thon! The sitters joyfully STOOD UP! Total as of that evening...$7,108! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Donations are still coming in. Will continue to post more!

We had our Celebration Dinner with friends and family who came to join us! Since we had been on an “airplane flight,” our dinner was in “Uganda!” We had about 40+ people who came to be supportive of our sitters. It meant a great deal to us to have our friends and family around us to say, “job well done.” I had friends as far away as Bakersfield (Brian Sutton & his fiancĂ©e, Shannon) make the drive. Thanks also to Aaron Kajumba & his friends from Southcoast. They are true servants who stayed until the end to help cleanup & load the cars. We also had an encore performance of “Beauty & the Beast” by Kiana & Tiffany!

Update! We continue to have money come in for the Sit-A-Thon! The new total raised it $7,888! Praise the Lord! You may still give by going to our website www.raininghope.org and clicking on the "Sit-A-Thon" button!

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