The WALK was today and oh my god I can't believe I'm writing this I'm so "walked out"! I had so much fun! My grandma finally got to come to an HA walk and so did some of my friends! :)
First off, we had to get up at 4:30 am! That's probably the only time I was excited...well more "ok" with getting up at 4 in the morning. (Us and the other 2 head families packed our cars and the U-haul the night before.) We got the pups up and dressed in their team shirts and we got ready and headed over to Frisco. We had 2 cars from our house, 2 other cars and the U-haul all filled with stuff!
Of course, it was dark when we got there and the park didn't have lights on! We also got there only to find out the tables and chairs and the other tents that we needed had not arrived and wouldn't be there for another hour!!!
We all started taking the stuff to their places in anticipation of the tables and tents. Also, the cheerleaders didn't arrive when they said they would so my brother and his 15 year old friends and some other volunteers had to start making the balloon arch. (Something no one had done before!) So, that took maybe 10 volunteers away from doing other stuff that needed to be done before registration! The tents, chairs and tables finally arrived and we ended up getting set up pretty fast for all that went on...or at least I thought we did.
Once it was all set up and teams started coming in I got the pups and we went around and welcomed everyone. We entered the t-shirt contest. We didn't win but our friends did! Yay!
Me and a couple other kids got to cut the ribbon and lead the walk, it was fun! I actually had a team this time, my friends walked with me and the pups only tried to jump out like 37 thousand times. Which is funny because they are so well behaved at these things, but all it took was us saying their names and they kinda got a bit embarrassed for being yelled at and would hide for a bit in their stroller and then test it again. Clyde jumped out and so we had him walk for a bit and he saw how it wasn't that great of an idea after all. He didn't try to jump out after that.
The stroller is so funny to me since I have always had big dogs and now I have these 2 itty bittys! But, the reason we have the stroller is for Clyde since he has bad back legs and a bad heart so he can't walk that far - especially in the heat. I would tell people "Ya, it's because Clyde has bad back legs." and he would lunge out of the stroller and run off like "I dunno what you're talking about, my legs are working just fine!" With his tail flopping in every direction since he can barely control or feel his tail. I had to chase him around quite a bit.
After the walk we got our team photo taken :) and Bonnie and I put our handprints on the backdrop for the photos with the other people who had Hydrocephalus! It is also so much fun getting to talk to everyone and meet new people! So many people showed up! To be honest I didn't even know there were that many people living in the surrounding area who were affected by Hydrocephalus!
Then it was time to take stuff down which we kinda left to the guys because we had packed the night before and helped unload in the morning - it was their turn. People (mainly the boys) fought over the leftover Raising Canes sauce and we now have a bag of oranges and one of bananas, and also a bag of buns! There were still lots left too! The boys also brought the inventory of fruit down, because they threw it at each other. After we packed everything up and were just about to leave the fire trucks showed up for the walk...
We headed home unpacked the car sorted stuff that was ours and going to stay at our house, or go to someone else's or going to storage. Then we got back in the car drove over to our friends who had the U-haul un-packed our car and helped finish packing up the U-haul for them to take to storage and then we were finally done! Sorta, I got home and started a "keep, get rid of, change, and new ideas" list for next years WALK and my team, while the whole walk was still fresh on my mind. Knowing me all my ideas will leave my brain as I sleep!
It was a very good turn out especially for our first walk! I think we raised around $55,000 - we had originally thought we would get about $18,000!! And about 520 walkers showed up! We did really well! We all thank everyone who donated, shared something, sponsored, spread the word, walked, and volunteered!! You guys rock!!
