Kyras Blog

Exciting news!!!  My yellow lab, Emma (not Charles who the foundation is named after), is having PUPPIES!!!

My mom, Jen, and I decided to postpone Family Promise to give Emma some support.  Between my mom and Jen, they have birthed 5 babies so they think they can handle another 10 or so.  Let’s see how that reasoning works out…

Now, back to the foundation.  We are going to put Family Promise on our list for the future.  They are a great organization but probably not the best fit for this year because they serve the same population that we helped last year.  Plus, we have some really great options that help people we have not given to in the past.  So as my mom said, “We should sprinkle a little fairy dust everywhere.”

Wondering where our fairy dust will be sprinkled this year?  I will take a break from playing a midwife and tell you about whom we chose as the 2012 Golf Classic beneficiary.

Ready….

Let’s have some fun and play a game to see if you can figure it out BEFORE I announce the winner.  I’ll give you a hint and you guess between Habitat for Humanity, Camp NEJEDA, and Comfort Zone Camp.

Hint A: They mainly help children.

Can’t get it yet. Understandable.  Two fit into that category.

Hint B:  While here you can learn a sic Dougie and karaoke all night.

This sounds like a lot of fun.  I might want to volunteer here!

Hint C: The kids they help get to come for FREE!

Come on, that one was a give away.

Hint D: If you have lost someone close to you, this is a place where you can get a break from the stress, judgments, and sadness.

So, NOW you have got to have guessed it.  Or you haven’t been reading the blogs.

The Winner:

COMFORT ZONE CAMP

We are really excited here at CLF about the Golf Classic (and the PUPPIES!!) and hope the money we raise will really make a difference in lives of these children and their families.   Save the date: June 25^th!

Now…back to the Real Midwives of New Jersey   ;)

3:00pm

Comfort Zone

After Habitat for Humanity (and my marshmallow dream bar), Jen, Mom, and I visited Comfort Zone. We all love our family and rely on them. Sadly, you could lose someone in your family way too early.  When you lose a loved one, you might feel angry, sad, and just about other emotion that you can think of.  It’s not easy to talk about it.  It’s even harder to continue to go on with life after they are gone.

Comfort Zone is a camp that provides a safe and comfortable environment for kids to work though a lot of these feelings.   It is also a place where they don’t feel so alone.  These kids are surrounded by supportive counselors and new friends who have felt the same things.

They come for a weekend, talk about what happened with people who understand, and something else – they have fun.  They sing karaoke, swim, eat s’mores and have pillow fights.  It is a place where a kid is not labeled as the one who lost their dad, but where you’re the one who tells great jokes or does a sic Dougie. Who knows who you can be by feeling safe enough to just be yourself!

And the cost – - – wait – — – it’s FREE to all campers.  So everyone has a chance to go regardless of if you can afford it.  That is amazing.  Often this camp is the only help they receive because their family can’t afford counseling.  I wish they had more.

One bad part, for each of the 5 camp sessions they run per year (max of 65 campers per session), Comfort Zone has to turn away 30 applicants because they don’t have enough space.  So each year, in New Jersey alone, they have to tell 150 kids who are grieving that there is no room for them.  I wish I could make sure that every child who is grieving could go to a camp like this.

Wow – with all these great organizations to choose from, it will be a really hard choice this year.  So much to think about…

Now back to studying.  Big Science midterm tomorrow and I have to get an A!  Tomorrow we are visiting our last organization, Family Promise.  I will let you know how it goes.  Until then….. Science…..

11:30am

Just got out of midterms.  Big English test today – hope I get an A!   Now off to our second day of site visits for the 2012 Golf Classic.

First, we took care of some very important business – Starbucks! Jen is from Seattle so Starbucks is a medical necessity but I do love my café mocha with extra whip!  Then back on the road to Patterson to visit Habitat for Humanity.­

Everyday you wake up in a nice warm bed, in a nice house.  A bed you never want to get out of to go to school.  What would happen if you didn’t have a “nice” house?  I am not talking about a big screen TV and your own bedroom.  I am talking about a house that has working bathrooms, walls without holes and windows that aren’t broken.

Habitat for Humanity (HFH) builds houses for people that need them. First, a family applies for a house and goes through a screening process to see if they are eligible.   Then, if they qualify, HFH explains to them that they need to be a part of the project. So the new homeowners must complete 400 hours of sweat equity. That means that they must help build their house or do some sort of community service for 400 hours.  And the whole family can help get the house.  The kids even get credit for hours if they get good grades. So doing homework helps them buy a house!  HFH acts as the bank and loans the family the money needed to pay for the house – which is only a fraction of what the house would really cost.  Then the family gets to have a safe, comfortable house to live in. A home is one of the most important needs for any family.  HFH helps a family build a home and we all know that home is where the heart is.

4:30pm

We just finished our visit with Camp Nejeda, which is located in Stillwater, New Jersey.  Have you ever thought about what happens when a child who has diabetes wants to go to camp? A lot of these children can’t because the camp or their parents won’t let them because of the safety and responsibility involved.  Camp Nejeda is a camp for children who have type 1 diabetes.   Camp Nejeda is a place where these children can have a fun, safe, and education experience.

It is fun because it is a camp, just like any other.  They have activities such as swimming, hiking, and much more. Being safe is a priority there. They have nurses on staff full time that takes care of their insulin and any bumps and bruises from the day.  Education doesn’t seem like “fun” in camp, but this education is essential for these children to live.  Camp Nejeda helps these children learn how to deal with and understand their disease. It also gives them a chance to run, play and make friends with other kids who understand them.  As the Director of Camp Nejeda said,  “Camp is the place to try something new.” I couldn’t agree more.

The camp looked like a lot of fun.  It also really hit me how important a camp like this is to all the children in New Jersey who have diabetes.  I am really glad I got to learn about them.  Tomorrow we visit Habitat for Humanity and Comfort Zone, which are really interesting organizations.  With all these great choices, the decision for our 2012 beneficiary will not be easy!

11:30am

Today, my mother, Jen, and I are on our way to pick a beneficiary for the CLF 2012 Golf Classic. The CLF Golf Classic is our annual fundraising event. Something totally unique about CLF is that we don’t actually raise any funds for our foundation.  My family provides the funding that we give out during the year through grants.  In addition to these grants, each year we go out and find a different needy cause and then hold an event to raise funds just for them.  All the money that we raise goes straight to the organization.  Even better, we match every dollar raised.  The people that donate come play golf, eat, and learn about the organization that we are supporting.

Last year, we visited many great organizations, but the one that fit our mission best was Big Brothers Big Sisters of Monmouth County (BBBS). If you have seen the movie 27 Dresses, you might have heard of this organization. BBBS pairs up an adult, a “Big” as they call it, with an at risk child, a “Little.”  To be considered a child at risk means someone who needs additional adult support, mentoring and guidance. There could be a multitude of reasons why a child might be at risk.  Having an extra adult role model can help them by providing someone they can go to for direction, support and even just having a good time. We raised $400,000 last year at our event and BBBS was able to branch out and help more children.

This week we will visit Camp Nejeda, Patterson Habitat for Humanity, Comfort Zone, and Family Promise to see which one is the best fit for our event.  I will let you know how it goes!

I love the holidays!  This week, I visited the Pediatric Unit of a hospital near my home, Monmouth Medical Center, and got to play Santa for a day! Well, I was almost Santa. I played Santa’s niece from Mrs. Clause’s side. I got meet some of the children in the hospital and gave them presents.  I know from the joy I saw in their faces that it helped make their stay a little better.

Going to the hospital is never fun, but going during the holiday season is even worse. We visited the Valerie Center, the Pediatric Care Unit and the newborn section. Each child had a bright smile on their face as they opened their gift.  And they got to do this with Santa’s niece right next to them! A newborn, just 15 minutes old, got his first gift from Santa.  Isn’t that the most precious thing? Yes!

The best part of the day would have to be seeing how happy they were. A simple kind thing can brighten anyone’s mood and this did. I feel so lucky to be able to help others.  It really makes me feel the true spirit of the holidays.

Happy Holidays!

Love,  Kyra

Last spring my class was reading a short fictional story called Flowers for Algernon. It is about a mentally retarded man, named Charlie, who really wants to learn. He wanted to learn to read and write so badly he was going to have an operation to triple his IQ, which was 68, even though there were serious risks. Algernon is the name of the mouse that was going to have the same operation. Fearing I will give it away, I really don’t want to say more about the story than that.

It is an excellent book.  One that really makes you think about life.  The story shows you that even though people may have a disability, it doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings or opinions.

I finished reading early and started to write a poem about my thoughts. In the poem, when I write about how you try so hard for so long, I am saying how people with disabilities must try incredibly hard to do things that I can do easily and I must not take it for granted. Kids complain about homework all the time.  But anyone who has the ability to learn without a disability should see it as a gift.  We should treasure it because for some people it does not come as easily and they would do anything for it.

Here is my poem:

Life gives you lemons,
you make lemonade.
Life gives you nothing,
and nothing is made.

You try all your life,
to be right not wrong.
You fight through the hard times,
but the hard times are very long.

Life isn’t fair,
even in your dreams.
Life can be a nightmare,
with people being mean.

Life makes you smile,
angry, or frown.
Life brings your sprit up,
even when it’s down.

Life hurts and pleases,
laughs and cries.
Life throws you a curve ball,
and says TRY.

By Kyra Citron