a pink crane for Ezra from McGilvra 5th graders

On Thursday, we went to McGilvra to meet with the two 5th grade classes.  They had planned a great surprise for our family.  Some talented art parents - Dan, Alessandra, and Tom helped the kids think of a tribute to Ezra and then made it happen.  The result is a beautiful steel crane, powder coated in bright pink, with laser cutouts on each wing that read Ezra Sherman 1998 -2009 and pie + unicyles = Ezra on the other.  These parents designed the crane with help from the 5th graders.  The kids earned money to have the components built, Tom welded the pieces, some work was donated by craftsmen who were touched by Ezra's story, and somehow it all came together before the last day of school!  Thank you to all!

These are the same amazing 5th grade friends who gathered together after school the week Ezra was in the hospital and with the help of some loving parents folded 1000 origami cranes and strung them together on strings, I should add that Milo and Luka were also there to help with this most important effort.  

An ancient Japenese legend promises that whoever folds 1000 cranes will be granted a wish, such as recovery from illness. Ezra's friends faithfully completed 1000 of these cranes, strung them together, and hoped they would see their friend recover from cancer.  Although this specific wish was not granted, the love and care from Ezra's friends and classmates strengthened Ezra and his family during a most difficult time.  Several strands of these cranes are now buried with Ezra and the rest are hanging proudly on our front porch.

The crane was dedicated by his classmates.  Joseph read a poem called Hope, by Emily Dickenson.  

Then Ivy and Courtney read a piece they wrote for the dedication entitled "Ezra"  It reads... "Ezra was a friend to anyone and everyone he met.  He had the rare ability to be exceedingly bright, exceedingly kind and caring, and exceedingly funny.  We all remember Ezra for many reasons, but today we are sharing some of the main reasons he was treasured.  Ezra was the sort of friend who would catch you if you fell, then wipe away the tears.  But his funny side showed more often than not.  For instance hiding Jordan's water bottle was one of the small but very memorable moments that shined in his honor.  He had many shining moment in his life.  Although we are deeply touched by Ezra's absence, we know that he deserved the privilege to go to heaven.  From the heart of the 5th grade."  

Then Dan and his trusted assistant Milo, climbed the entrance to the garden and installed the pink crane.  (If you click on any of these photos they will enlarge for better viewing.)

In the garden is a tree that 5th graders planted for Ezra early this year. While the crane was being installed we all placed wishing rocks around Ezra's tree and decorated it with pink flowers.  It was beautiful.  

Because this art work is on public school grounds, it had to be approved by the school district which took some efforts by these parents to jump through all of the appropriate hoops and make sure that this was all done legally.  

Thank you parents and children of the McGilvra class of 2009.  We will never forget you.  We have been strengthened by your love, support, and thoughtfulness.  Peace and Love, kandice and ryan

Broadway Bound May 2009

As many of you know, Broadway Bound has been a big part of our lives these past few years. For those of you unfamiliar, Broadway Bound is a children's theater for kids - ages 5 to 18.  They put on musicals.  Lots of singing, dancing, and acting.  All 3 of our kids have auditioned and performed in many of their productions.  Ezra and Milo have not missed one since they first began 3 years ago.  

 2 weeks before Ezra went to the hospital he performed in the Wizard of Oz with Milo.  Milo was the Mayor of Munchkin Land and Ezra was the Barrister of Munchkin Land.  They sang a duet together and sang and danced in many of the scenes, loving every minute of it.  

A few days later they auditioned for the next Broadway Bound production, "Once Upon A Mattress," to be performed in May.  The cast list came out the day that Ezra got sick and went to the hospital.  He never got to hear what his role would be.  Milo hoped that he would get better in time to perform and was looking forward to telling Ezra what his part was.  

Ezra never got to hear what part had been assigned to him.  He died the next week - during the first week of rehearsals.  It was hard for Milo to continue going to the rehearsals and to perform his first musical without his brother, but he did it.  Thank you to Jimmy and all of the other Broadway Bound staff and kids who provided love and support to Milo during these past few months.  Thank you for dedicating the production to him - we all loved that!

Many of his friends and family were able to come to one of his performances that took place the last week in May.  Thank you to all for coming and supporting Milo and our family!   For Ryan and I, it was definitely hard not to have Ezra up on stage with Milo, though we knew he was there in spirit.  We miss him so much, but are proud of our kids and the way they are going forward with their lives and doing what they can to honor Ezra.  

Milo's bio in the playbill read: This is my 6th Broadway Bound show.  Woof to Art, my guide dog in training, is he sitting next to you?  My performance is dedicated to my twin brother Ezra who auditioned for this show, but died of Leukemia before rehearsals began.  This one's for you.

Yoga Class in honor of Ezra Sherman 5.17.09

A friend and fellow McGilvra Mom - Ann - will be teaching a yoga class Sunday, May 17, 2009 from 1 to 2:30pm.  The class cost is by donation, with all proceeds to benefit Leukemia research in honor of Ezra.

 This "Open Your Heart" yoga class is open to all levels of yoga experience.  It will be held at Lotus Yoga: 4860 Rainier Ave. S. (upstairs) 98118,  in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle. 

Special thanks to Ann and to Lotus Yoga.

I hope all will feel welcome to attend.

Thank you to everyone who is doing something to honor Ezra's life and memory, we appreciate your thoughtfulness, energy, and creativity.  

Big Climb Awards: Ezra Team wins "Community Spirit Award" - raises $9,416!!

Last night we attended the Big Climb Awards Ceremony at the Columbia Tower Club - on the 76th floor of the high rise we climbed to raise money for Leukemia.

The awards ceremony was a very cool event.  They combined both Big Climb fundraisers - the one that we participated in on March 22nd, as well as the one that firefighters participated in on March 8th.  The firefighters' climb was just slightly harder than ours.  They climbed in full combat gear.  It is the largest individual firefighter competition in the world.  Both Big Climbs benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The awards party was a formal event with gentlemen wearing suits and firefighters wearing "Class A" uniforms.  We dressed up, Art wore his green guide puppy in training vest. Everyone loved Art.

Awards were presented for top 3 in each category - fundraising, racing, team fundraising and team racing.  

Ezra's team won a special award.  They told a little about Ezra and that he died on February 5, 2009.  They said they got a phone call about a week later from Ezra's 4th grade teacher, wondering if it was too late to get a team together to climb in Ezra's memory. Although Ezra's team was one of the last to sign up, we ended up being in the tenth place for the largest team and 10th place for fundraising - out of hundreds of teams.   Most teams signed up and began fundraising in October 2008, while Ezra was happily living his life.  Ezra's Team had 38 members and raised $9, 416.00.  So our award for was for making it into the top 10 in just over one month.  

HUGE Thank you to everyone that so generously supported our team.  Money raised goes to blood cancer research and aid to current patients living with blood cancers.

Milo was our winning fundraiser, with $1,158.00 - Another HUGE thank you to everyone who donated to him.  He was enormously proud that he could lead our team in this area.

Our family attended the Awards event along with one of Ezra's 5th grade teachers, Ms. C and one of his classmates - Ivy.  It was a great night.  We shared a table with a firefighter that was very impressed with Milo's Big Climb accomplishments in honor of his brother.  Actually more than one firefighter stopped to congratulate Milo, which was very cool.  What can you say about a firefighter all dressed up in a formal uniform, holding a trophy or two, and talking to an 11 year old boy, telling him that they are impressed with him or that they think his accomplishment is cool or that his brother would be proud of him, etc.  A priceless experience.  

So many people have asked me how this fundraiser went, with the economy suffering and all.   The Firefighters raised $640,000 (up $90,000 from last year).  The Big Climb raised about $1,296,000 - final sponsorship money still being counted - (almost $300,000 more than last year).

We had a great experience participating in this event and felt like it was a great way to honor Ezra' s life and memory.  Ezra would absolutely LOVE the Big Climb.  Please consider joining Ezra's Team or pledging us next year, we thank you in advance.  Milo has already started planning for next year's team.  Here we go...

PE Award for Ezra and Boardwalk 5K

This morning Ezra received an award for being a "PE Champion," his brother Milo accepted the award in his honor.  The award was presented by Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, Maria Goodloe Johnson.  

Our elementary school had about a dozen kids riding on unicycles around Husky stadium in Ezra's honor for the "walk of champions."  Then about 40 McGilvra school supporters joined with others from Seattle Public Schools for the Boardwalk 5K - an event that earns money for the health and fitness programs in our Seattle Public Schools.  Our team was led by our own PE teacher, Ms. Mass, who proudly wore a photo of Ezra unicycling pinned to her back and several others carrying signs with photos of Ezra unicycling.  Photo above from soccer 2006, Ezra at right, Milo at left.

Ms. Mass has also taught an after school unicycling class this semester, dedicated to Ezra.  The class made use of 3 PINK unicycles donated to McGilvra School, by Izilla Toys in honor of Ezra.  When I visited the class one day, one girl came up to me and told me that Ezra inspired her to be a better unicyclist.  How sweet is that! Thank you Ms. M for keeping Ezra's memory alive and honoring his achievements. The unicycling photo above is Milo on the "giraffe," this is something that Ezra had been training to do, and although he had finished all the prerequisites set by Ms. M, he hadn't had the chance to try it before his death.  Milo finished his prerequisites during this afternoon unicycling class and this is him, proudly showing off his new skill.  Congrats Milo.  Thank you Jude for the beautiful Pink unicycles, Ezra would have loved them and Milo has enjoyed riding them at school, as well as today at the Boardwalk 5K event today.  

Ezra's Team- We did it! 69 Flights of Stairs! And over $8,000 in donations!

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.

Ezra's Team for the Big Climb in Seattle

Hi friends, the Big Climb is an event to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Ezra's 3rd and 4th grader teacher - Maria Breuder - has organized a team to climb in Ezra's honor on Sunday, March 22, 2009.   The event will be held at the Columbia Tower in downtown Seattle.  Participants will climb 69 flights of stairs, that's 1311 steps, 788 feet of elevation.  

Our family signed up to join "Ezra's Team" today, we would like everyone who thinks this sounds fun to join us.  If you would like to join or pledge Ezra's Team please go to www.bigclimb.org  Once at the site you can click on either donate and follow the prompts or join a team and follow those prompts.  key word to search for a team is Ezra (password needed to join is ezrasherman).  Our start time for the climb is 2:30pm.  Sounding fun????

Also, as many of you know we set up a memorial fund for Ezra at Bank of America, this is under Ryan Sherman/Ezra Sherman Memorial Fund. 

No pressure, but we know many of you are interested in getting involved, so these are things that we are currently doing to honor Ezra's memory.  Ezra was such an active boy, so we are trying to keep active too!  (photo shown above is our family, summer 2007, after climbing Beacon Rock in the Columbia Gorge, the world's 2nd largest freestanding monolith, elevation 848 feet.  Photo at right is the Columbia Tower in Seattle).