Yesterday was the Big Climb! 37 of Ezra's brave and fearless friends signed up to climb 69 flights of stairs at the Columbia Tower. We climbed in Ezra's honor, many of us wearing pink with stickers proudly stating that we were climbing for Ezra!! and earned money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Thank you to all who joined us in person and in spirit! And thank you to everyone who so generously donated money to Ezra's Team! Many of the teams climbing were organized months ago. Ezra's team was organized only last month, not long after Ezra went to heaven. After our family signed up for the climb a few weeks ago, Milo in particular has enjoyed watching our team pledges grow. He was especially delighted to find that people were pledging him. His excitement grew as his pledges grew. When his pledges surpassed his team members he became even more excited, he carefully raised his goal every so often. Finally he felt comfortable to raise his goal to $1000. When he got home tonight he checked his pledge level - currently at $958! Then he checked our team $8,341! And then he checked the home page - bigclimb.org - where they list the top 10 fundraising teams. Keep in mind there are hundreds of teams and 6,000 participants. Milo let out a whoop of pure joy when he found our team listed as #9! This is our first time in the top 10 since we signed up. And with several more weeks to go, we could still fall out of the top 10, but it was still exciting to see "Ezra's Team" on the list :) So thank you everyone. If you still want to donate, feel free - up until April 10th. As our climb is likely to become a yearly event, please think about joining us next year - everyone is welcome and it really wasn't as scary as you might think. Most of the kids scurried up the steps in about 15 to 20 minutes. And most of the adults finished pretty quickly behind them. On the 52nd floor, in the stairwell, there was a poster of Ezra, pictured with his dog Beckley wearing his "Guide Puppy in Training" vest from a few short months ago. Seeing Ezra's picture reminded us why we were huffing and puffing and gave us that extra push to finish the remaining steps.
14 comments:
Congratulations!!!! That's fantastic! I think of you all so often and pray you are feeling peace. Love to you --
Good work!!!
nice!!
i thought i'd share that in language arts class yesterday, we had an author come in to talk to us. she had us help her prepare to write her next novel so we would know her process. she asked our class to come up with names for the guy hero of the story. someone in our class said Milo. i leveled the playing field by saying Ezra's name. it was the last name said aloud. while the author and the boy in class who would be the hero in the story were deciding on the name they liked the most, they decided on Ezra. the author said, "the very last name was the best one."
Yeah! Way to go!
Congratulations! Way to go Milo! I'm impressed by how energized you all look in the pictures. I'm sure it helped with your endurance knowing who you were doing this for. We'll think about joining you next year. I'll start training now--it will have to be Jay who wears Cecil on his back however! :)
P.S Happy Birthday Milo! (45 minutes early!)
Tonja.Jay.Sidni.Cecil
Dang, I wanted to be the first one to leave a birthday wish. Happy birthday Ezra and Milo. We will be thinking of you both on this day.
Stacy
p.s. We are sorry that we missed this event but we will do our best to make it next year. It looks like so much fun, and we don't like to miss out on anything fun.
We want to wish Milo and Ezra a happy birthday today. We are thinking about you both and all of your family. Congratulations on your huge pledges! We hope you have a wonderful day.
Love, the Brobergs
Craig, Alyson, William, Cameron & Henry
Happy Birthday Milo and Ezra!!! We are thinking of you both and your family today. We hope it is a wonderful day for all of you. Congratulations on your stairs and your pledges. That's so exciting!
Love, the Brobergs
Craig, Alyson, William, Cameron, and Henry
We've been thinking about you and your family on this very special day.
Happy 11th Birthday, Milo!
P.S. Ruby, our dog, had a birthday today, too. :-)
Way to go Team Ezra! Great job everyone.
The Chandlers
Wow! Amazing! Way to go Team Ezra!
Very impressive stuff. We look forward to supporting you next year as well.
Much love to you all,
Steph & Neil
p.s., Happy Birthday!
Cricket and I will be at the GDB campus next Friday and plan to stop by Ezra's tree ... thinking of you and your family.
I was able to see the beautiful tree at GDB ... I am going to post a picture on my blog - cruisinwithcricket.blogspot.com -- is that okay? I'll wait to make sure, first.
Climbing the tower...a bit challenging. I found myself alone in the stairwell for about 10 flights. People were ahead and behind me, but I was basically alone, trudging up the fire escape, surrounded by cement walls and steps, with the only thing to take my mind off of the monotony was the photos at the top of each flight. So, up a flight and read the bio, a real person who was diagnosed with leukemia on such and such a date, and either went into remission or passed away on such and such--plus something personal about each person: a quote, quirk, or a special memory. Then another flight to think about it. I started getting a bit teary, not to mention 'puffed', at around flight 50 or so. Then I rounded the corner and there was the posting for Ezra. He had his arms around his dog, Beckley, and he was smiling his sunny smile. It gave me new strength to power on. I didn't win any races, but this chick finished in honor of one of my favorite kids.
Post a Comment