Check out Whyvolunteer.org to see some new changes and look for more to come!

It always amazes me to see how easily individual acts of altruism can have such a profound affect in our community. People that do selfless acts to benefit others are hard to come by. I am honored to say that I have been lucky enough to be blessed with so many of them in my life, and to say they are my friends. I wanted to share one of those friends and her story in hopes of inspiration.

Amy Eddings is a silent hero behind a fight to save Nicholas Barnett from acute lymphoblastic leukemia.  

Team Born with a Cape ~ Runners for a Cure was formed in 2009 after Nicholas Barnett was diagnosed with cancer and became a patient at St. Jude Hospital.  Amy along with a wonderful group of runners from the Petersburg area decided to form a team, not only to raise money for St. Jude, but to make others aware of the many wonderful miracles St. Jude performs for kids every single day.   Last year the team of “Heroes” raised  $13, 000 for St. Jude. The group of runners also participates in the St. Jude Memphis Marathon held on December 4, 2010. Along with the marathon this group of friends hold fundraisers throughout the year, including a city wide garage sale and a chili and soup dinner, with all proceeds going to St. Jude's Hospital. When I asked Amy why she got involved she said "Nicholas Barnett the little guy with cancer, his dad was a dear friend of the family when I was younger.  So we decided we would do this for them…to honor his fight and help him from remission to cure…" Amy is a true hero, but not just a hero for Nicholas, a hero for so many other children at St. Judes that are benefiting from her selfless dedication to making a difference!

For more information about Born with a Cape visit www.bornwithacape.com.

 

For more information about St. Jude Children’s Hospital visit www.stjude.org . To make a donation to the “Born with a Cape team, please contact Amy Eddings at 217-416.1158. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's that time of the year again, a time to spend with loved ones while enjoying the simpler things in life, a time of great conversation and great food. While the time we spend with our family and friends is the true gift of the Holiday Season there are many people that are not as fortunate as most. Most of our children will wake up on Christmas morning to a pile of presents under a Christmas Tree. What joy I feel watching my children's faces filled with anticipation as they rip open their gifts and how they cannot wait to tear open the box of their favorite gift that sat at the top of their Christmas list for months. Many parents do not get to experience that same joy.

According to the origin, Over sixty years ago, the wife of a Marine Corps Reserve officer handed her husband a hand-made doll and told him to give it to an organization that provided toys to poor children during the holidays. When he told her no such agency existed, she told him to start one. And so Toys for Tots was born. The 1947 pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign. That year, Marine Corps Reserve units across the nation conducted Toys for Tots campaigns in each community in which a Marine Reserve Center was located.  Marines have conducted successful nationwide campaigns at Christmas each year since 1948.  The initial objective that remains the hallmark of the program today is to “bring the joy of Christmas to America’s needy children”. 


Please help Toys for Tots this holiday season in delivering a message of hope to needy children in our own community by donating a new, unwrapped toy to the Sangamon County Chapter of Toys for Tots. Collection locations are listed here on the Toys for Tots website. Be sure to also check their listing of "Upcoming Local Events ."  For more information visit http://springfieldil.toysfortots.org

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