We hope you are enjoying this time of year. The Aubrey Rose Foundation has been having a wonderful but very busy summer with planning our Fireworks Spectacular which will take place on Sunday, September 4 and some new adventures such as our Personalized T-Shirts for Troops and hosting our first speaking engagement featuring Major Dan Rooney. These are two new programs that we have created that I hope you take the time to read more about. We are constantly thinking of new ways that we can help families and their children because our requests for help are growing every day. To date this year, we have awarded over $50,000 in financial help to children with life-threatening medical conditions and we are getting new requests everyday. We would like to share with you one family's thoughts on what our help meant to them.
"The Lord has brought you to us to save Baby Macey's precious life. You were the very first foundation who responded to our plea for help. You were so unwavering and unconditional when you extended help. We prayed hard and you were the answered prayer. As a devotee of St. Therese of the Little Flower, I prayed for a sign, a flower and she gave us a Rose (the Aubrey Rose Foundation).
This baby' was born with a not so perfect heart and needs open-heart surgery to help her live. She is from the Philippines and over there, if the family does not have the funds, the child will die and I could just hear the desperation in the mother's voice... who just had given birth a couple of days earlier. We helped wih $5000 in funds that will almost enable this surgery to take place and now the price just went up another $1500 because of other things so hopefully the family can find others to help! I will keep you updated on this baby's condition."
Receiving this email letting us know that we were an answered prayer is a huge reminder of why we are doing what we are doing... Aubrey's Foundation is saving lives one child at a time!
We are so grateful to all of you for your continued support, prayers, and guidance with everything. You are helping us help others and for this we are eternally appreciative. Because our needs are getting greater, we are constantly enhancing our programs that will lead to reaching out and touching others. Here is another message from a family that went full circle with us...
The words thank you will never be enough. The Aubrey Rose Foundation touches people in a way that is unexplainable until you have been in the position to need them. My family has been fortunate enough to see the organization full circle. A couple years ago, we went to a fundraiser they were having, it was a beautiful evening full of the most caring and giving people I had ever been around. I left there with a renewed faith in people. Little did I know that a couple years later, we would need them. My son, Tyler, became gravely ill and was misdiagnosed, VERY long story short it landed us in Cincinnati Childrens for 2 months and more medical bills than I care to think about. Once we were home and the bills started coming in and were overwhelming, a friend of ours contacted Aubrey Rose Foundation....she had no idea we knew of them already. The day I came home and found that box on my porch was the most amazing feeling of relief. There was a beautiful letter that explained that $2000.00 of Tyler's bills at Childrens had been paid!!! It took my breath away!!! Not to mention the autographed book, and the 3 stuffed animals for Tyler and his brothers. What a beautiful thing to include the siblings, who are often more affected than people realize in the midst of things like this. We will forever be thankful and never forget. And as soon as we are able, we will again be at your fundraisers and be on the other side to help out this fantastic life changing organization. We are so blessed to have crossed paths with you! Forever grateful"
This note above is another reason why we need to push on and continue to expand and grow! That is why we are developing our speaking series. This special evening will help fund another Holiday Party for Dayton Children's Hospital. Having had the unforgetable and beautiful experiences that we did with Aubrey, we know Aubrey would want us to live and what better way to do this than to be able to help many children who are medically fragile in order to relieve some of the burden on these families. It's very important for these families to know that even with a sick child, they can still find the time to smile and to have fun amongst the stress in their lives. If we could relieve just a fraction of this anxiety, and be able to help these families to place a smile on their face, then all of the work that we do is so worthwhile and keeps us going.
We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives and who support us through their volunteerism, their contributions, but most importantly, their belief in what we are doing. They are sharing the word to help us grow and this is what we need! Aubrey is still touching people even in her death and I'm sure she is smiling and watching out for all of us from Heaven!
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and double lungs for your encouragement!
Jerry, Nancy, Carly, Nick, Spencer and Saint Aubrey Hollenkamp and George and Nancy Frondorf, (Aubrey's Grandparents)
