Reviving the Blog - Megan's Medical Fund Fundraiser

It's been a long time since I've posted an update. Life gets busy and so many things have changed in my life in the past two year. But it's time to bring it back. In the past, this community of friends and family have come together to raise money for an amazing cause. I'm hoping we can do that again. This time my request is very personal.

In February, my 12-year old niece, Megan, was diagnosed with T-Cell ALL Leukemia. On June 30, Megan underwent a Bone Marrow Transplant at the University of Minnesota Medical Center - a procedure that can cost more than $1 million. Fortunately, Megan is insured, but there are many expenses that are not covered by insurance. These expenses include living away from home (she lives in Des Moines, Iowa), for three to six months. During this time, my sister, Linda (Megan's mom), will be on leave from work to be able to be with Megan in the hospital.

In addition to the expenses related to the transplant, Linda's house will need some work done before Megan is released from the hospital. The bone marrow transplant compromised Megan's immune system, so the house needs renovations that will make it a safe place for Megan to come home to and continue her recovery. You can read more about Megan on her Caring Bridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/meganford

Every donation will go toward helping Megan and her family with her journey back to health. To give, visit the Megan Ford's Medical Fund fundraiser at Give Forward.

Megan's friends and family have generously donated some handmade thank you gifts - we have items that are knitted, woven, quilted, leatherwork, sewn and more. We'll be randomly picking names from our donor list so we can share some of the love that we've been feeling.

For my knitter friends, I'll be including some of my handspun yarn as thank you gifts. Since not everyone has a use for yarn, we'll be doing a separate drawing for the knitters/yarn lovers who donate. After you donate, send me an email at meganfordsmedicalfund@gmail.com to let me know that you're a knitter. In addition, I'm donating all of the profits from the sales of my pattern the Allis Shawl to Megan's Fund. You can purchase it on Ravelry.

Thank you in advance for your donations - my family appreciates your support. If you have any questions regarding the fundraiser, please send an email to meganfordsmedicalfund@gmail.com.

The Winners List!

Congratulations to all of the winners! I will be sending you an email to confirm your address and I will also be copying the prize donors on the email if they will be sending the prizes to the winner. Thanks again for making this year's fundraiser an amazing success!
  
1. A copy of Wendy Johnson's book Wendy Knits Lace, personalized for the winner by Wendy.
Winner:  Megan Williams
 

2. A project bag handmade by Sharon (SeashoreSharon). (this is just an example of the type of awesome bags Sharon makes)
Winner: Katherine Drivas















3. A project bag handmade by Sharon (SeashoreSharon). (this is just an example of the type of awesome bags Sharon makes)

Winner: Julie Meyer

 4. A large wedge CUPCAKE project bag with a matching micro wedge project bag handmade by the Piddleloop Sewing Team, Jen and Wendy.

Winner: Barbara Currie

5. 1 or more knitting or crochet ebook downloads of your choice from Ravelry totaling up to $20, donated by Bev.

Winner: Nancy Phillips

6. A shawl donated by Chrystal

Winner:  Kenisha Thompson

7. A shawl donated by Diane of the Knitabulls podcast.

Winner: Peggy Latham

8.  A $50 gift certificate to Another Crafty Girl donated by Sarah. Sarah dyed the beautiful yarn Laura used to knit the original My Hope shawl. This gift certificate is good for shop updates as well as for special orders for repeating colorways or even a custom colorway!

Winner: Ruth Colville

 














9. A set of my favorite stitch markers in Cupcake Mafia colors by Rose-Marie from Beagin Design.

Winner:  Sue  Jenkins

10. A set of my favorite stitch markers in Make-A-Wish colors by Rose-Marie from Beagin Design.

Winner: Catherine Kohn

11. A set of my favorite stitch markers in Rainbow colors by Rose-Marie from Beagin Design.

Winner: Tami Thurston

12. A skein of Wollmeise in Skandal um Rosi, donated by Lynda 

Winner:  Rita Watts

13 - 17. Hillary (Hippiepenguin) has donated five copies of her super cute Lattice Cable Hat pattern.  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lattice-cable-hat

Winners:  Anna Liddell, Krystal Lowe, Sarah Knopf, Victoria Griffin and Maria Camacho Torres

18. Hillary has also donated a skein of her handspun. It is 100% wool, 3.7oz & 136yds of super squishy goodness.

Winner: Jenny Porter

19. A bag of Masham fiber from Woolgatherings, donated by Stephanie (Htstrait)

Winner: Pam  Boulet

20. A skein of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks BFL Featherweight in Rhiannon, Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Chickweek Geometer Butterfly and Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs Oleander Yarn, donated by Stephanie (Htstrait).

Winner: Kathie Fredette

21. A multicolored shawl, donated by Stephanie (Htstrait).

Winner:  Rose-Marie Aronsson

22. A project bag in Cupcake Mafia fabric!! donated by Lisa of Lazysockmonkey Designs

Winner: Vicki Kolman

23. A project bag in Cupcake Mafia fabric!! donated by Lisa of Lazysockmonkey Designs

Winner: Sheila Duong

24. A project bag in Cupcake Mafia fabric!! donated by Lisa of Lazysockmonkey Designs

Winner: Stephen Waters

 


25. A project bag in Cupcake Mafia fabric!! donated by Lisa of Lazysockmonkey Designs

Winner: Margaret Lew

26. A My Wish shawl knitted and donated by Stephen (sowaters).
      Winner: Deborah DeBerry



27. Gorgeous handspun spun by Jessica (showmeyourknits)

Winner: Judi Lewis

28. A wall hanging quilted by my mom
(photo to come)

Winner: Gail Bable

29. A pair of signature needles in the winner's choice of size and configuration (circs, dpns, or straights) donated by Angel (amcgarrah)

Winner:  Nena Kaster

30. A pair of signature needles in the winner's choice of size and configuration (circs, dpns, or straights) donated by Angel (amcgarrah)

Winner:  Chonita Olivas

31. A pair of signature needles in the winner's choice of size and configuration (circs, dpns, or straights) donated by Angel (amcgarrah)

Winner:  Courtney Kiszewski

32. A pair of signature needles in the winner's choice of size and configuration (circs, dpns, or straights) donated by Angel (amcgarrah) 

Winner: Allison Huggins

33. Mixed BFL from Woolgatherings - spun by me

Winner: Sally Hendricks-Bauer

34. Crown Mountain Farms Polwarth - spun by me

Winner: Angelea McGarrah

35. Gail's Art Alpaca Silk - spun by me

Winner: Heather Kinne

36. A loop! bump spun into a thick and thin chain plied yarn - spun by me

Winner: Barbara Atkins

37. A choice of one skein of yarn or two braids of fiber in their choice of the Robot Unicorn Attack or Rainbow Dash colorways from Moonshine Fiber Co.
     Winner: Carin Boelman






















































38. A gorgeous skein of Tempted Lil Luxe Grrl in the When I'm good colorway, donated by Elisabeth

Winner: Wanda  Treece

39. A project bag donated by my little sis and Cupcake Mafia teammate Mary

Winner: Nancy Kliewer

40. A tablerunner donated by my little sis and Cupcake Mafia teammate Mary
Winner: Anne Algier

 

This next group of prizes are the exception to the $10 rule. Those who donated at least $30 received one entry for these prizes and additional entries for every $30 past $30.

1. A skein of the highly coveted self-striping Nyan Cat sock yarn painstakingly hand-dyed by Lisa aka Fibernymph.
Winner: Maria Camacho Torres -->

2. A colorful lap quilt handmade by my sister, Linda (zinda)

Winner: Karen McKlemurry

3. A skein of my handspun - this was spun from a loop! Bullseye Bump. It is 657 yards of chain plied fingering weight yarn.

Winner: Amanda Smith

4. Sheila from the Knit 1, Heart Two podcast will knit a pair of socks from the Socks that Rock in the March 2012 club shipment, Budding Twig (pattern to be determined by Sheila and the winner)

Winner: Margaret Lew

5. Leslie from The Knit Girllls has donated a quilt handmade by her and machine quilted by Cathie Jones.
Winner: Susan Snow Burnett

And there is one additional special prize. Mandy from Australia has donated a prize to encourage knitters from Australia and New Zealand to donate. She has donated a gorgeous skein of Lush Yarn, which is a company that is unfortunately no longer in business. It's a 50/50 merino silk blend, fingering weight 4ply. The skein is 118grams and is approx 475m in length. The colourway is called 'love'.

Winner:  Fiona Henderson

Thank you to everyone  for their prize donations and for spreading the word about the fundraiser. And thank you to everyone who has made a donation! Together, we have made at least three wishes come true!

Fundraiser Update

Just a quick update to let you know that I'm still working on the drawing. With my new job, selling and buying a new house and moving to a new city, I haven't had the time to get everything done with the drawing as quickly as I had hoped. I am working on it and almost have everything completed, but it will be another week before I'm able to contact the winners and the prize donors to get the prizes sent out. I apologize for the delay, but I want to make sure I can give this my full attention so it gets done correctly.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have not downloaded your My Hope pattern using the pattern code I sent, please download it before your code expires on Sept. 20. If you donated and did not receive a pattern code from me, please send me an email at lynnazimmermanATmacDOTcom.

Thank you again to everyone who has supported my fundraising efforts. The more than $16,000 we raised will go to helping make wishes come true for some amazing kids!

We did it!

Just a short post to share that Team Cupcake Mafia survived the Denver Oyster today! It was another fantastic race and we were carried to the finish line by everyone who has supported our efforts to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Colorado. The best part of the day was the announcement that our final total was $16,010! When we arrived at the race, our total was $15,920. I was chatting with a volunteer from Make A Wish and mentioned that we were only $80 away from $16K and he went over to the check-in table and made the donation that took us over the top. Obviously, generosity is contagious. Together, we have raised enough money to make at least three wishes come true. I can't say thank you enough!

Now for a few logistics. If you donated on Friday, your pattern code will be sent out very soon. Laura created 500 pattern codes at the very beginning of the fundraiser - we both though that would be more than enough. Well, we ran out. She's working on getting new ones created and I'll get them out to you ASAP.

I will hold the drawing for the amazing prizes sometime this week and I and the rest of the prize donors will get them sent out soon after. I'll post the winners on this blog and I'll also email the winners.

If you have any questions, please contact me at lynnazimmerman AT mac DOT com or send me a private message on Ravelry. I'm LynnZimm there.

More Incredible Prizes!

The ladies from Moonshine Fiber Co have donated a fabulous prize for the fundraiser drawing. The winner of this prize gets their choice of a skein or two braids of fiber in their choice of the Robot Unicorn Attack or Rainbow Dash colorways.




















































And Elisabeth has donated this gorgeous skein of Tempted Lil Luxe Grrl in the When I'm good colorway

To make your donation, visit my personal fundraising site at: www.RunningGuru.com/RunWithMe/LynnZimmerman  (Please make sure you donate on the page at this link)


Thank you to everyone for your support. Race day is Saturday!

THE PRIZES!

So we're almost to $14,000 (can we make it to $15,000??) and I'm finally getting around to posting the prizes - I appreciate your patience and support and I hope you think that the prizes were worth the wait. I think they are amazing! I'll be conducting the drawing the week of Aug. 26 and I'll get them in the mail to the winner shortly after the drawing (or in some cases, the prize donor will ship the prize directly to the winner).

Please note: If you have already made a donation and would like to make an additional donation, your donations will be combined to determine your number of entries.

Thank you to everyone who has donated a prize.

1. A copy of Wendy Johnson's book Wendy Knits Lace, personalized for the winner by Wendy.



2. A project bag handmade by Sharon (SeashoreSharon). (this is just an example of the type of awesome bags Sharon makes)












3. A project bag handmade by Sharon (SeashoreSharon). (this is just an example of the type of awesome bags Sharon makes)












4. A large wedge CUPCAKE project bag with a matching micro wedge project bag handmade by the Piddleloop Sewing Team, Jen and Wendy.

5. 1 or more knitting or crochet ebook downloads of your choice from Ravelry totaling up to $20, donated by Bev.

6. A shawl donated by Chrystal 















7. A shawl donated by Diane of the Knitabulls podcast.

8.  A $50 gift certificate to Another Crafty Girl donated by Sarah. Sarah dyed the beautiful yarn Laura used to knit the original My Hope shawl. This gift certificate is good for shop updates as well as for special orders for repeating colorways or even a custom colorway!

 













9. A set of my favorite stitch markers in Cupcake Mafia colors by Rose-Marie from Beagin Design.


















 10. A set of my favorite stitch markers in Make-A-Wish colors by Rose-Marie from Beagin Design.

11. A set of my favorite stitch markers in Rainbow colors by Rose-Marie from Beagin Design.



12. A skein of Wollmeise in Skandal um Rosi, donated by Lynda 

13 - 17. Hillary (Hippiepenguin) has donated five copies of her super cute Lattice Cable Hat pattern.  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lattice-cable-hat

18. Hillary has also donated a skein of her handspun. It is 100% wool, 3.7oz & 136yds of super squishy goodness.

19. A bag of Masham fiber from Woolgatherings, donated by Stephanie (Htstrait).

20. A skein of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks BFL Featherweight in Rhiannon, Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Chickweek Geometer Butterfly and Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs Oleander Yarn, donated by Stephanie (Htstrait).

21. A multicolored shawl, donated by Stephanie (Htstrait).

22. A project bag in Cupcake Mafia fabric!! donated by Lisa (lazysockmonkey)

23. A project bag in Cupcake Mafia fabric!! donated by Lisa (lazysockmonkey)

24. A project bag in Cupcake Mafia fabric!! donated by Lisa (lazysockmonkey)
 
25. A project bag in Cupcake Mafia fabric!! donated by Lisa (lazysockmonkey)

26. A My Wish shawl knitted and donated by Stephen (sowaters).
(photo to come)

27. Gorgeous handspun spun by Jessica (showmeyourknits)

28. A wall hanging quilted by my mom
(photo to come)

29. A pair of signature needles in the winner's choice of size and configuration (circs, dpns, or straights) donated by Angel (amcgarrah)

30. A pair of signature needles in the winner's choice of size and configuration (circs, dpns, or straights) donated by Angel (amcgarrah)

31. A pair of signature needles in the winner's choice of size and configuration (circs, dpns, or straights) donated by Angel (amcgarrah)

32. A pair of signature needles in the winner's choice of size and configuration (circs, dpns, or straights) donated by Angel (amcgarrah) 

Next up is my handspun - When I'm not sending out thank you notes and pattern codes, I'll be spinning my little heart out and will give away at least four skeins of my handspun. Here is what they look like now

33. Mixed BFL from Woolgatherings. 

34. Crown Mountain Farms Polwarth















35. I'll dig into my stash and pick something great!

36. I'll dig into my stash and pick something great!

This next prizes are the exception to the $10 rule. Those who donate at least $30 will receive one entry for these prizes and additional entries for every $30 past $30. This will be a bonus drawing - so if you donate $60, you'll have 6 entries in the drawing for the prizes above and two entries in the drawing for the prizes below.

1. A skein of the highly coveted self-striping Nyan Cat sock yarn painstakingly hand-dyed by Lisa aka Fibernymph.

2. A colorful lap quilt handmade by my sister, Linda (zinda)

3. A skein of my handspun - this was spun from a loop! Bullseye Bump. It is 657 yards of chain plied fingering weight yarn.



















4. Sheila from the Knit 1, Heart Two podcast will knit a pair of socks from the Socks that Rock in the March 2012 club shipment, Budding Twig (pattern to be determined by Sheila and the winner)















5. Leslie from The Knit Girllls has donated a quilt handmade by her and machine quilted by Cathie Jones.

And there is one additional special prize. Mandy from Australia has donated a prize to encourage knitters from Australia and New Zealand to donate. She has donated a gorgeous skein of Lush Yarn, which is a company that is unfortunately no longer in business. It's a 50/50 merino silk blend, fingering weight 4ply. The skein is 118grams and is approx 475m in length. The colourway is called 'love'.

If you're from Australia or New Zealand and have already made a donation, you're already entered to win this lovely skein of yarn (and there are several of you - thanks!!). To make a donation, send me an email at lynnazimmerman AT mac DOT com, and I'll share the details on how to donate.

I think I'll have a few more prizes to add before the drawing so check back later this week! If you have contacted me about a prize and you don't see it listed here, please send me a message to lynnazimmerman AT mac DOT com. Life has been a bit hectic with the success of the fundraiser, a new job (more about that later) and a move (more about that later too). I promise I didn't leave it off on purpose!

Thank you to my incredible friends for their prize donations and for spreading the word about the fundraiser. And thank you to everyone who has made a donation! This is a team effort and we are making a lot of amazing wishes come true. I'm still taking prize donations, so if you'd like to make a donation, contact me at lynnazimmermanATmacDOTcom.

To make your donation, visit my personal fundraising site at: www.RunningGuru.com/RunWithMe/LynnZimmerman  (Please make sure you donate on the page at this link)

I will receive an email with your donation amount. With a $5 donation, you will receive the My Hope shawl pattern designed by Laura Linneman. I will email you the pattern and enter you in the drawing (usually within 24 hours of your donation...sometimes it might take a bit longer, but if it's been more than 3 days since your donation, send me a note). For every $10 you donate, you will receive one entry in the prize drawing that will be held at the end of August.

If you live outside of the U.S., you can make your $5 donation for the My Hope pattern on Ravelry. If you would like to make a larger donation, please send me an email at lynnazimmermanATmacDOTcom.