The Overnight

It is time for me to get serious about the Overnight...our 20 mile walk through the night on Aug. 12th to raise funds for suicide prevention and educational programs. Friday night wonderful daughter Kristin, with some help from friends, threw a fabulous engagement party for her former roommate Liz and her fiancee Nathan. At the party I met up with one of the girls from our team last year, Kylie. As we chatted, Kylie told me she is walking again this year but this time not only in memory of Laurie and Jariel but in memory of the dad of a two year old from the daycare she works at. Suicide is still so out there...

Today we had our first team practice walk. I set up 2:00 PM as our time to get started but found myself running late getting the grandkids packed up from their weekend here. As we got stuck in Schuamburg High School graduation traffic and I am about ready to blow a gasket, birthday boy Denver pipes up from the backseat, " Grandma. look a baby cardinal!" Sure enough, a cardinal is perched on a fence and I verbalize to the three little ones in the back seat what the cardinal reminds me of, that God is with us. I have to smile and stop seething.

And the walk, 4.2 miles today with only a small rub on my foot. Aimee and Mark Novelli, parents of twin boys are on the team, and walked today with Drew and me. It was good to talk, to remember, just good. So dear friends, Laurie's Legacy, needs to pour it on. Our goal is $6700 in honor of Laurie's birthday, this week, June 7th. She would have been 22 years old. I miss that cheerful goofball. I miss everything about her; I pray that others would never reach the point she did. Would you consider going to our team page and picking any of the other team members and contribute any amount? I have reached my individual goal and I am grateful. Each person on the team commits to raising $1000. You can check us out at our team page, Laurie's Legacy .