Lemonade (and salsa and goodies) Stand Fundraising

 

My dear friend Collins Foster and her daughter Emerson are hosting a lemonade stand July 30 in honor of Emery’s birthday. Emerson and Emery met when they were 4 in preschool and became fast friends. Just before Emery went into rejection the girls were taking a weekly gymnastics class together. Seeing them tumbling and on the balance beam made my heart swell which made it all the more difficult to accept the fact she went into rejection and didn’t survive.

Collins brought Emerson to the hospital to visit several times. I think during the first visit is when Emery had lice (unbeknownst to us at the time) and when we discovered the lice I had to make the call to Collins to advise her to treat Emerson and herself. Collins was so gracious, instead of being grossed out and avoiding us after that she embraced it and referred to it as a child’s right of passage. What a wonderful friend to make me feel OK about an embarrassing situation.

Collins and Emerson were also there one evening when we were attempting a family dinner at the hospital. The cafeteria has limited choices especially for someone like me who is gluten free and can’t eat onions or garlic. Phillip and I had to make special arrangements to bring food with us to the hospital either from home or from a nearby store. We would have to pack up coolers because there was no place to easily store food or reheat it other than a microwave. We had an incident at home where our large freezer had been left open and everything started to thaw. On this particular evening Phillip brought frozen/thawing shrimp to the hospital so we could eat it before it went bad. It turned out to be disgusting and Collins sat there and watched me choke down a cold shrimp taco. With avocado mayonnaise no less!

When I told her about the idea of a family kitchen she immediately saw why that would help families who are staying in the hospital for more than a day or two. So she has been helping us with fundraising ideas from day one. Their lemonade stand will generate proceeds to be donated toward our kitchen effort and we will always share the crazy moments from the hospital that strengthened our friendship and bond.

Thank you Collins & Emerson for being so supportive and thoughtful. I would love to start a movement of lemonade stands on Emery’s birthday, if anyone else has wondered how they could help us with the family kitchen effort & you like the idea of a lemonade stand we would love to hear what you have planned and how it goes.

Beanie Boos in Honor of Emery’s birthday

July 6, 2016

Emery loved Beanie Boos and she received quite a few of them last year while she was at the hospital. Her dear friends Michelle & Claire Hicks would send her a new beanie boo after every visit. It was always such a fun surprise to have it delivered to the room after they left. We wanted to do something special on Emery’s birthday at the hospital and I thought we should give kids in the cardiac unit a beanie boo. Emery loved kittens so we picked Leona who should be loved by both girls and boys. We plan to deliver them to patients July 30, Emery’s would be 8th birthday. I can’t believe she would have been 8, that seems so mature. Emery had her own full sized Leona and loved it. We hope this will brighten a few days when we deliver them.

What’s New with Emery’s Kisses for Hearts?

May 24, 2016

Keely Funkhouser

I wanted to have a way to keep people updated on the progress we’ve made through Emery’s Kisses for Hearts Foundation. At the end of 2015, Phillip & I started talking about how we can keep Emery’s legacy alive. We had a lot of ideas of how we wanted to give back to the CHD and Transplant community. Whether it be via funding amenities at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) for families in a similar situation to ours or funding CHD and transplant research. Emery’s life was short but powerful. She reached so many people and touched so many lives. Our lives are richer because of the experiences and relationships we’ve formed around Emery. We want to leverage the love people have for Emery and for our family to give back for other families to have better outcomes than ours.

I started talking to CHOA in January about an idea for a family kitchen in the Cardiac Step Down Unit. While we were staying there we were frustrated that we didn’t have an easy, convenient way to store food in a refrigerator or re-heat food that wasn’t in microwave safe containers. One of the nurses told me the 4th floor/AFLAC Cancer center had a family kitchen with a stove. I thought that was great, there are already facilities in the hospital like what we were thinking of, now we just had to get approval and fund it.

The good news is we have obtained approval, CHOA is going to repurpose a Teen Room into a family kitchen. I am thrilled that we were able to convince them of the need. Now I am waiting to hear what the cost will be and how much they may need in contributions to make it happen. Here is a photo of a portion of the family kitchen in the AFLAC unit.

The money we have collected from the Bake Sale at my office and through Emery’s memorial fund will go towards making this kitchen a reality. I know we will need to raise more money to contribute therefore we set up a named fund at CHOA in Emery’s honor to continue to raise money for this gift. It is called Emery Funkhouser’s Kisses for Heart memorial fund and you can make a donation from our donation tab.

I would also like to raise money by selling T-Shirts, if you are interested in a shirt let me know. I haven’t ordered them yet but I will put something together if there is enough interest.

This is a cute design that I am considering: