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| Rett Citron before they're packed in individual boxes. |
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Saturday, November 17, 2012
2012 Ornaments Released!
The link is here: http://www.katefoundation.org/buy_2012_ornaments.html
Friday, November 16, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Here We Go
We had it all planned out. This year, we’d order inventory early. This year, all of the planets would align and
ornament ordering, distribution and fulfillment would be seamlessly
orchestrated with a savvy 2012 marketing effort. The wondrous hum of ornament packages moving
along the conveyor belt and out to eager supporters would fill the air.
Then we got hit by a hurricane. Again.
Shortly before our 2011 Gala, we’d been hit by Hurricane Irene. No power, no cell phones and lots of peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches. During this
year’s storm, we spent some quality time at a Holiday Inn and were displaced a
few additional days from our house to resolve some damage to our property. Just as contractors were about to start working
on our house, we were delayed again by about a foot of snow. It’s become the Land of the Lost Three Weeks. Look, a Sleestack.
We’re not complaining (too much), but a hurricane will put
a wrench in your glass ornament plans every time. So
here we are, almost fully recovered, ready and rearing to go with the new
ornament introductions.
We’ll introduce each of the four new ornaments over the
next four days, one a day, and by this weekend the website interface will be
active and ready to receive orders for the 2012 ornaments. We will begin shipping the new ornament orders
beginning Nov. 26, 2012.
Thanks to everyone who has been asking about the new
designs and we appreciate all of your support of the Kate Foundation and Rett
syndrome research.
Friday, November 9, 2012
RSRT NYC
Congratulations to Rachel and Jason Rothschild and so many
other tri-state area Rett families for spearheading the Rett Syndrome Research
Trust NYC event last night. Despite the
last few challenging weeks of hurricanes, snowstorms and power loss in the region,
hundreds of people attended. It was held
at a magnificent venue, the Broad Street Ballroom in the heart of Manhattan’s
Wall Street district. Our friend Stefanie
Gutierrez, mother of four-year-old Anna who passed away in September from
complications due to Rett syndrome, gave a brave and beautiful speech about Anna
and the importance of reversing Rett syndrome.
It was a great night and congratulations again to RSRT and all the families
and volunteers who organized it.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Vote for the Donut
Kate came with me early this morning to the polling place
and was all smiles. We went to the bakery
afterward and she cast her own enthusiastic vote for a honey-glazed donut. The term limit for that poor donut was about 90
seconds.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Thank You!
As Kate got taller and heavier last year, we realized in
slow motion that she was about to graduate out of the standard infant bucket swing
at our local park. It was great while it
lasted, but there is no doubt we pushed the swing’s limits. In the end, if you could manage to lift her
into the swing by yourself, the surprise waiting at the end of your swing
session was that she was a whole lot tougher to extricate because her legs and
braces would get caught in the bucket. The
extent to which strangers will prefer to stare and marvel versus actually offering
to lend a hand is a bit of a stunner.
Nevertheless, our favorite town park didn’t have any
special needs or handicapped accessible swings, so we moved on and surveyed the
dozen or so other parks our town offers and they didn’t have any either.
So we stewed for a couple of weeks. We estimated there to be more than 50
individual swings in town and Kate wasn’t able to use any of them. The concept of raging at Town Hall and provoking
the local special needs attorney to start a legal light-saber battle with the
town seemed cinematically romantic for all of 3 seconds. Instead, Sarah wrote a great letter to the
head of the Town Commission in charge of Our Favorite Oceanside Park. In a nutshell, they responded in less than a
week with this: “You’re right. We don’t have any special needs swings in
town and we’d like to be pro-active about getting one. Are there any swings you would
recommend? Oh, and by the way, we just talked
to the town Rotary Club and they’ve offered to pay for the swing and the
installation.” Right then, a double
rainbow descended the sky and a unicorn walked through it.
Forgive the sarcasm, but in the world of special needs
advocacy, no one ever says “yes” off the cuff, trust us. It’s usually, “No. Absolutely not. Well, maybe.
Come get it,” and then you get the opportunity to walk on hot coals.
So a huge THANK YOU to the Branford Rotary Club and our town’s
Memorial Park Commission for sparing us the hot coals and, more importantly,
for providing Kate and so many other special needs kids (and teenagers) a swing
to call their own. They even placed it strategically
under a beautiful tree in the shade.
Thanks again!
Friday, September 7, 2012
Clean and Simple
If, by chance, you have a Facebook account and you’re willing, you can do something good for Rett syndrome
research today with your account profile.
The Rett Syndrome Research Trust (RSRT) has been
nominated to the Chase Community Giving Campaign which gives out grants to worthy
organizations that receive the most votes through Facebook.
We typically don’t like to encourage these kind of voting
campaigns, but this one is clean, simple and could mean $250,000 for research. You can only vote once and it doesn’t require
you to come back. They don’t ask for
your email address or require you to set up any kind of account. You only need to have a Facebook account and
the desire to hit the “VOTE” button.
Following the link below will take you to the RSRT voting
page. Sharing the link below with others
also counts as an extra vote if friends click through and vote for RSRT. Thanks again!
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