Day of Hope: Things you need to know

Two people per time slot on blood donations.

It seems that our celebration/service project/blood drive has affectionately been dubbed the "Day of Hope" by many family and friends, so we'll run with that. It's a lot quicker to type/say than "Elena's One Year Diagnosis Anniversary Service Project and Blood Drive", that's for sure. :)

So, the Day of Hope is one week away from tomorrow!!

We are so excited for it! Living through the months of February and March this year has been surreal at times. I'm so glad to be where we are this February and March rather than where we were last February and March. Things aren't all better, but they have normalized and there is a lot of hope shining brightly before us. It has been SO nice to have this "Day of Hope" to look forward to, plan for, organize, distract me, and consume a lot of my thoughts.

Thank you SO much to everyone who has donated items/money for the kits and who has signed up to donate blood. Every time I hear about a new donation/blood donor, it seriously makes my day! We have the best, most giving, and generous family, friends, neighbors, and ward. It means so much to have people supporting the things that are important to us. We simply could not make this service project happen without you. I have once again been overwhelmed with the sacrifices and hard work that people have put into this. THANK YOU! We are so excited and I hope you have an idea of how much of a difference you are going to make in people's lives at a time when they need all the love/support/resources/etc. they can get.

Also, a special thank you to our corporate sponsors/donors (and to our hard working family for setting these donations up!):

Natalie at Pocket Full of Posies (headbands and bows)

Tori at Lip Notes (chapstick)

Shopko (discount on doctor's kits)

As you can see from the tracking side bar on the right, we are still in need of many items for our kits. If you haven't donated, please consider some of the areas that are lacking. You don't have to feel like you need to finish off a category to make a difference - that if you can't do everything, you shouldn't do anything. Even if you can just donate one deck of cards, one gas card, one bottle of hand sanitizer, one blanket - that is a big help! And please let us know if you can donate blood - we still need at least 15 more committed donors.

And now, gearing up for next weekend, here are some random bits of information you need to know:

• The time for the "Day of Hope" has changed about a million times. Please note: it is from 9am-2pm.
• Just an update for those that have donated money: we have used a little under 1/2 of it and been able to buy 27 children's cancer books! (A most important item, coming from parents of a child with cancer.) We've found books written by children with neuroblastoma, rhabdyoblastoma, leukemia, and osteosarcoma. The rest of the money will be used in the coming week, as we see what areas still need donation, to purchase items that haven't been donated. Thank you!
• We were unsure of the rules at first, but you CAN donate blood if you are nursing. You just need to be more than six weeks postpartum.
• Click to enlarge these copies of the blood donor pre-screening guidelines. If you have additional questions or are unsure of your eligibility you can ask the staff on the day of or call 1-800-737-0902 ahead of time.

• For those wanting to donate cancer books: they have been difficult to track down (most are out of print), but we recently ran across a phenomenal children's book about leukemia: Chemo to the Rescue. You can go here to purchase it.
• Please remember to RSVP (comment, text, phone call, email) if you will be attending the celebration, so we know how many refreshments to get.
• A note about the tracking bar on the right: the length that the light green bar extends to represents how many total items in that category that people have promised to donate. When we actually, physically receive the items in our hands, the bar "fills up" with dark green. So, where the light green extends out to is how many total we should be getting and how far it is "filled up" with dark green represents the items actually received. Make sense? Sorry for the confusion. :) Our goal is at least 50 kits. So, we are looking for 50 of most items (bags, blankets, lotion, chapstick, hand sanitizer, gas cards), and about 30-40 for the child categories (stuffed animals, toys, and doctor's kits) and about 15 of the teenage items (journals, iTunes gift cards, card games, YA fiction, anything else you think a teenager might like).
• Remember to have all items for the kits at the church by 10:30am at the latest. You are also welcome to drop them by our house ahead of time if you'd like.
• Important! If you are donating blood, we need you to sign up for an appointment time. Basically this is just so that everyone doesn't show up at the same time wanting to donate and so that the blood bank will be able to accommodate everyone and the staff will stay busy. We don't want them standing around with nothing to do all morning and have everyone try to donate at 11am or something like that. :) Appointments are every 15 minutes beginning at 9:00 and going until 2pm (9:00, 9:15, 9:30, 9:45, and so on...). Please leave a comment, call, e-mail, etc. to let us know what time you would like to sign up for. As I hear from people I will update and put the times that are taken by their names on the sidebar, so you can see what's available. Two people per time. Please check and PLEASE let us know!
• We need two volunteers to staff the sign-in table and the refreshment table for the blood drive. Your responsibilities are pretty easy - just smiling, saying hi, making sure no one passes out :) (at the refreshment table), and directing people to the staff (at the sign-in table). We need these two positions covered for the entire drive (from 9am-2pm), so it might be helpful to have multiple people, so someone isn't sitting there the whole time. This could also be a responsible teenage son or daughter or one of their friends, as well. :) Please let us know!

Thanks a million everyone! Keep us posted and let us know if you have any questions. Can't wait to see you all there!