So if you haven't heard - I won!! I am
officially the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Gulf Coast Chapter's Woman of the
Year 2016! And what that means from here on out, is mostly a big fat
nothing! HA! But what it meant on Friday, June 3rd, was that I was
able to donate over $241,500 to LLS!!! And THAT is the true VICTORY!
That is close to a quarter of a million dollars, and near 2.5X my
original goal! That number is staggering, to say the least. I still
can't believe it myself. Never in my wildest dreams did I think the final
number would be anywhere near that. $241,500 is the most EVER raised by a
Gulf Coast Chapter candidate! It is a LOT of money. Money that YOU should
be so proud to be a part of. This money is going to make a real
difference in fighting blood cancers! Just simply amazing. So thank you! Thank you from the depths of my heart. You made this happen. You made this possible!!!
Can we talk a little about June 3rd? It was
an awesome night. I was fortunate to be able to invite all of my family
(including John's which so thankfully I consider mine), Team Awesome, and
several close friends to the gala. It was so very special to have so many
people I love and who love me with us that night. These people were my
most avid supporters, my rocks, and cheerleaders and without them I could not
have done this. And many of them are also the ones who miss my mom the most. Please, if you ever get the chance to attend this
gala, take my advice, and do it! Without a doubt it is the most fun, joy
filled, good feeling gala you will ever attend. The love in the room is
almost palpable. The energy is electric. You will leave feeling
inspired and hopeful, I guarantee it.
My one regret of the evening was that I didn't get
to properly thank some people, so I am going to do it quickly (or actually not quickly as it turns out) here...
So proud of this girl and so blessed to call her my friend! She raised over $124K. That makes her Woman of the Year in my book!
This lady is amazing - she not only lost her mother to blood cancer, but is herself a survivor of blood cancer! She now is a PA at TCH helping children all over our community fight these diseases. Oh and she raised a whopping $150K++!!
McKenzie, the 2016 Girl of the Year and Cancer Survivor. See her sing "Fight Song" here! She kills it!
Nicole and Alex: These are the VERY
hardworking women behind the scenes at LLS who so expertly pull off this
amazing event. They are the ones who put together this whole campaign
crew and kept all of us nominees running the amazing campaigns that we did!
They did the grunt work, and take none of the credit. And the
encouragement, don't get me started. Sometimes I honestly wanted to
strangle them! HAHA! When I was nearing $100K, they were saying, no
problem, you can do $150K. $150K in my sights, "Katie, you will get
the most a Houston candidate has every raised", and it didn't stop from
there. They always had faith in me, even when I didn't think it was
possible. Every email ended in, "Let us know what else we can do for
you". Their contribution to my campaign is immeasurable, to say the
least. Congratulations on your first of many $1 million campaigns!
To Team Awesome (read more about them here!) : You all jumped on board
without hesitation. I know this cause means so much to all of you, but
you all also have very busy and important lives. To dedicate your time to
help me with this campaign means so much to me. You provided me with
encouragement, support, donor lists, likes, shares, emails, auction
items, and just general talk-me-off-of-a-ledge confidence that I wouldn't have
had without you. You are truly awesome in every sense of the word.
Brian Ross: The minute I saw you at the gala,
I began to cry (and am crying now typing this). I will never forget you
sitting across from me at Starbucks back in October, when you were first
talking to me about the campaign, telling me that I would get way more out of
this experience than anything I put in. No truer words have ever been spoken y'all (I will get to that next!). I was so scared to take this
on. It seemed daunting, and what if I let everyone down? You had
such faith in me and I could see in your eyes that day that you wanted this for
me just as much as it turned out I needed it. I will be forever grateful
to you for this remarkable experience, exposing me to this wonderful
organization, and giving me the spark to light up my silver lining. Suck
it Cancer!
My Dad: Pops, its been such a hard few years.
I can't believe what you, me, and Lindy have been through together.
Its not the way any of us thought our lives would go, I know that.
Like I said in the Team Awesome introductions, the love and care you
showed for mom as she battled her many illnesses was the most pure example of
living the vows of the sacrament of marriage that I might ever experience.
It was such a wonderful gift that you gave her, and to me and Lindy.
And after her death, your strength, but also vulnerability, your
resiliency, and your compassion, is part of how I knew we would make it.
I stopped short there of saying, "make it THROUGH this" because
I know we will not ever be THROUGH missing mom, and wishing she was still here.
But together, through God's Grace, we have figured out a way to keep
moving, living, loving, and finding joy.
To John: Thank you for being there for me.
For listening when I wanted to talk, for hugging me when I didn't.
Thank you for letting me live these past few years the way I needed to
and picking up the pieces when I was falling apart. You see the real me
even when I don't and you are better than any other person in the world at
making me be the best Rita (i.e. Katie) I can be. In a campaign rooted in
joy, you are the source of so much of mine. I am so grateful for you and
love you so much.
And now to what this campaign has meant to me...its
going to be so hard to fully capture. I accepted this nomination in
memory of my mother. I've said so many times, that I wanted to find a
meaningful way to honor her, and raising funds for this great organization, the
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, was a perfect fit. I would raise money
that they will use to fund research, help patients and their families, and
raise awareness about these diseases. At the same time, I was going to
make the silver lining surrounding our loss brighter. A win/win.
But honestly, I didn't know if it could work, and there was a part of me
that I think didn't want it too. 6 months ago, I still had overwhelming
grief for the loss of my mother. Everyone else seemed to be moving on,
getting used to their new normal, but not me. And I didn't want to deal
with it. The void of her loss felt like the only thing that filled me.
I held onto my grief like a security blanket. If it went away -
would my mom too? I thought it was all I had left of her, it was my only connection. But then
I started working on this campaign, and everyday I had to face my grief
squarely in the face. I couldn't ignore it or the money wouldn't get
raised (thank God for my competitiveness!). Each time I worked on the
campaign was hard. It was emotional, and draining. I cried through
each and every blog post, letter, email and Facebook update. But little
by little my sadness went away. That void that consumed me was filling up
with JOY again. The tears that fell were happy ones. It wasn't any
one thing, but all of it together. It was learning from the lessons of my own interviews, hearing about your struggles and losses and seeing you still
standing, it was prayers and words of encouragement. I was doing something
that I was passionate about and I was enjoying doing it (even through the
tears!). I was recognizing that I could still miss my mom but be happy
too. They ARE NOT mutually exclusive. And that is what this campaign has
meant to me. It has given me the gift of my true smile back.
Just take a look at this picture, shot at the moment they announced me
as the Woman of the Year. Look at all of the love, you can see the JOY,
you can see that smile. I will thank God
every time I remember this...
Note: All professional photographs provided by the talented Jenny Antill Photography. Thank you for capturing such a special night!
Note: All professional photographs provided by the talented Jenny Antill Photography. Thank you for capturing such a special night!
