4 of us 5 Kabels with Sharon, Teri and Kristen of Bay Ridge Cares.

Yes they do!

Hi all – It’s been a long but wonderful weekend. Yesterday started off normal enough, Nicole headed off to work at the crack of dawn as usual on a Saturday. Sally was a bit grumpy and very clingy which made getting the boys ready for soccer a bit challenging on my own. Our friend AnnMarie came by and took them, which left me to focus on getting Sally down for a nap. During nap time, I had to prepare everything for the family for the rest of the day which included the parade and fundraiser.

Feeding Sally oatmeal, the first time I’ve fed her from a spoon in over a month, it was the start to an emotional day.

The boys and AnnMarie got back, had a quick lunch, threw costumes on and were off to the parade where we met Nicole at the beginning. We jumped in with Thomas’ school and joined the thousands of people marching in costumes up 3rd Avenue:

Mommy with her little owl, what a hoot!

Marching in the parade. William is a t-rex (not a gecko as some said). Thomas (sigh), was a unicorn, and actually a big hit at the parade as the kids loved the costume.

It was hot out there, so halfway through Nicole/William headed off with Sally so she could feed her in the quiet shade and Thomas & I headed right down to the fundraiser organized by Bay Ridge Cares. Please visit their site, and if you live in Bay Ridge LIKE THEM and get involved!

We arrived and the bar was already mostly full, and were then told that there was also a large area in back filled with parents and kids. As I was being told this, a bagpipe band not only walked past the bar, but right into in and through everybody!

Make way for the bagpipers!

Was outside so was bummed to have missed them circled up.

That was unexpected and cool. Following that Nicole, William and Sally arrived. There were several members of the local press on hand and took a ton of pictures of us. Probably too many, at this point one of the organizers of the event gave us the “get your butts into the party right now” look (sorry Sharon!) so passed off Sally to our friend Bozena to watch her at our home and headed around back to find a huge outdoor space filled with kids and parents. They had snacks, games and arts and craft projects for the kids. And beer for the parents, lots of beer. When we first discussed the event with Bay Ridge Cares, I mentioned it would be nice to do something kid friendly so Thomas and William could be involved. BRC accomplished this and then some, it was phenomenal.

A huge card for Sally with messages from the neighborhood kids posted on it.

Arts and crafts for the kids…

and face painting…

and games!

There were lots of familiar faces, but mostly faces we’d never seen before or only in passing. A welcome address was made by Kristen Pettit, who has been my main point of contact with the event and had us over for brunch a few weeks ago so we could meet everybody. Nicole and I then got to mingle, thanking people for coming and meeting strangers who knew all about Sally from the blog and wanted to help. About an hour later, we were again invited back up to the front.

First the founder of Frankie’s Mission, a non-profit here in Brooklyn focused on pediatric cancer made a speech and presented Sally with a check for $2,000. I met Camille in the bar earlier and was aware previously that she had lost her son to cancer which led to the foundation, so started to grow emotional but as always in public kept it under wraps. It was an unexpected gesture and were very moved by it.

Next Josh Milstein, CEO of Mommy Nearest, came to the podium. Mommy Nearest is a new parent phone app who launched a contest over the summer, which Bay Ridge Parents, a Facebook group of parents in our neighborhood won. The winners were to receive $5,000 to throw a party. Instead, the Bay Ridge Parents elected to donate the full amount to Sally. It was an amazing gesture and we were informed of it last week. However, when they presented the large check to us it read $10,000. Josh then said that Mommy Nearest decided to match the donation. It was so unexpected that I was biting my lip not to start crying. I looked down at Nicole figuring she was smiling or surprised but found her crying, which of course resulted in me doing the same. Only briefly, because I was then called up to say a few words which I had totally forgotten about. I have no idea what I said but thanked Bay Ridge Cares, The Wicked Monk for hosting the event, Sean Perri for DJ-ing this and the McFadden’s event, Mommy Nearest and the people of Bay Ridge. I do remember forgetting to thank Frankie’s Mission and felt terrible about it the remainder of the afternoon. Luckily I have Camille’s email and can send her a thanks.  I don’t have any pictures of the presentation, but here’s a picture of the big check (in more ways than one):

The big check.

That’s Heather of BRP, she initiated the donation to Sally. Neither Nicole or I knew her before this, just the amazing act of a stranger.

DJ Sean, who gave up two Saturdays for us.

I then headed in as the people in the bar didn’t hear any of the presentation, so we did it again. It was funny as the microphone was having issues, so Josh and I used our booming voices to speak above the crowd. They then read off all the raffle winners of which there were 30 amazing prizes including tickets to Disney on Ice, a Jets game and the Rachel Ray Show, an iPad, a bike, gift certificates galore and much much more.

New friend Justin Brannan reading off raffle winners.

After that, the event started to wind down. Nicole headed home to feed Sally and I hung out with the Bay Ridge Cares team to chat about the event and unwind with a beer. Nicole then returned with a very special visitor, Miss Sweet Sally Sunshine herself:

Sally saying hi to some of the Bay Ridge Cares team after the event.

Sweet Sally Sunshine playing with her FortuneKeeper necklace with her picture in it.

It was great as the Bay Ridge Cares folks worked so hard on this event that Sally couldn’t attend, so they at least got to see her afterwards which was a fitting conclusion. Nicole and I enjoyed a quiet dinner together (thanks Marianne!) standing off to the side away from everybody in front of the huge window which was about as far as our comfort with Sally’s safety would go. We got to chat with people during and thank them for their hard work. We then packed up and headed home, getting a lot of strange looks carrying the huge check.

Today, Nicole worked again so I took the kids outside where the Bay Ridge Cares folks were stationed outside recruiting new members to help out. Sally enjoyed watching all of the people walk by and we got to see a lot of people who had come to the fundraiser. The boys enjoyed running all over the place and testing my patience. Two booths down Delete Blood Cancer was set up, so I went and got my mouth swabbed and got put on the national registry. We know two little girls at MSK (Cami and Ariane) who have had transplants, thank god they had matches when many don’t.  Hopefully Sally won’t need one, but Nicole and I want to bring awareness to the need and urge people to get swabbed. More on that soon.

Sally at today’s 3rd Ave Festival

For now, we are exhausted from the long but amazing weekend. I have gone on record as saying that I thought we’d get lost being in NYC, unlike what we’d experience in a small town. I’ve learned (as my wife has said) that Bay Ridge is a small town, the biggest small town in America as many call it. I grew emotional at the fundraiser as this was mostly strangers coming out to support our little girl. They weren’t friends, they weren’t family, they weren’t coworkers. They were neighbors. I even spoke with couple different people who either vaguely knew Nicole and I or recognized us, but had no idea Sally was OUR daughter, they were just there to support a local girl named Sally and were shocked to find out Nicole and I were her parents. “You’re THAT Matt and Nicole?”…yes..yes we are. It just goes to show that people were there not to be seen or because they felt they had to be, but because they wanted to support one of their own.

They are no longer strangers or just neighbors, they’re part of our family.

Please keep Sally in your thoughts and prayers.

Matt