amommysjoy: Trot for Tripp Thanks

Sorry this is so late!! I've been fighting with my computer for 2 days. It's saying my hard drive is full and that I can't upload anymore pictures. I only have 20,000 on here:) Ugh. Anyway, I promise to keep working on posting the pictures from this past weekend!

Tripp's fundraiser was amazing. It was a huge success. I want to say thank you again to everyone who came out to show us support. It was overwhelming to see that many people from the community all gather together for Tripp. There were over 500 people who registered to run or walk for Tripp. Can you believe that?? And we had over 65 sponsors for the Trot. That's amazing. A BIG thank you to all of the companies and individuals who sponsored this amazing event.

But my biggest Thank You goes to my sweet friend Dianne Cothern. Without her, none of this would have happened. She rallied the community together and she spread more awareness about Tripp and EB in 5 weeks than we could in do in 18 months. Because of her, we have a tremendous amount of money in our fund for Tripp, and I can sleep a little better at night knowing that if we could maybe do this once a year, it would be enough to carry us through Tripp's finances. Thank you seems kind of lame for all you've done for our family, Dianne. So I just want you to know that we are forever grateful to you and Johnny for putting your lives on hold to do something so amazing for our family. Not only did Dianne put together this whole event, she went to the radio station twice to promote it, she got in touch with the local news station about doing a story on Tripp and the race, and spent these 5 weeks doing a lot of thoughtful things that people don't know about. We love you, Dianne.

So not only did Tripp get all of these people gathered in one place for him, but he also got a REALLY cool gift. Dianne somehow got in touch with Garrett Hartley, the kicker for our New Orleans Saints. She gave him the blog address and asked for a football for Tripp. She said the ball came to her within a week with all the player's autographs. I thought that was the coolest gift he could have received and we will cherish it always:) He thought it was pretty cool, too!

Tripp didn't make the fundraiser. I know there were a lot of people who were disappointed and wanted to meet him, but I know you understand. The constant steroids that he is on make his immune system so low, and with all of his open sores... I just can't risk him getting an infection. There's always risk, even at home, but taking him out makes it a bigger risk. Not to mention the fact that he can't open his eyes outside unless it's dark, or the fact that he might FREAK out if he couldn't find his rocking chair when it was time to rock rock. I could go on and on. But I really wanted him to be able to see all the wonderful people who came out to support him- even though he wouldn't understand. I know one day he will know how many people are reaching out to us. And he will be as touched as I am.

So please be patient with me on the pictures... I'm working on putting all of my pictures on an external hard drive and saving them to discs. But I will have a lot of trouble deleting pictures from the computer no matter what:( I'll have the Trot for Tripp pics up as a page link on my sidebar soon!

But I will give you a few pictures as a preview:)

All the runners lining up.