We Are the Champions!

One thing our family has learned since Ari was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma is the amazing amount of support, both big and small, that is available in our communities. If you have ever doubted the fundamental goodness of most people from all walks of life--conservative and liberal, rural and urban, religious and atheist, white, black, old, young, gay and straight, ... whatever--you needn't look any further than the outpouring of support for embattled children to put your doubts aside. Whether we are talking about large, organized acts of charitable giving or small personal gifts from from friends and neighbors, the plight of gravely ill children has an unparalleled ability to strip aside our differences and relate us to one another as people. Indeed, anyone who has the means but not the motivation to support organizations like CMN, needs to spend some time with even one of these champions--much less fifty one of them! Appropriately, therefore, the journey started with a celebration of the champions ... .

Our Disney-to-D.C. journey began on March 17th with an overnight at the Fairfield Inn in Denver. The next morning when we got down for our ride to the airport, Ari and (her brother) Francis were suprised to find a big, white stretch limo! We shared the ride to DIA with the Colorado Champion, Tess Clark, and her family. (You can check out Tess's story here: http://www.childrensmiraclenetwork.org/ChampionChildDetail.aspx?id=150&state=CO.) The flight in was really kind of fun since we kept bumping into other champion families along the way. And a few short hours later, we were strolling off the bus and into the Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando. Here is a picture of one of the courtyards from our balcony.

We spent the next few days getting to know the other families and the sponsors, not to mention some of the local rodents ... I mean residents. [Picture of Ari w/ Tess and Mickey (right).]

This was also a time for us to get to meet and thank the sponsors for putting in a huge amount of time and resources to make the CMN possible. In fact, we learned that despite the downturn in the economy, the CMN sponsors actually increased the amount of money raised over last year! This meet and greet culminated in a ceremony where every child (all 51 U.S. champions, plus those from Puerto Rico, Australia, Canada and the U.K.) was given a a station for signing the CMN champions books which were distributed to the sponsors. Below are some pics.

After the signing ceremony, we were treated to a story by former Forty-niner quarterback Steve Young and a concert by Julianne Hough. (Sorry, no pictures.)

Finally, on Saturday morning we had an awards ceremony. The keynote speaker was Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Rhetton. Her speech was really inspirational. Afterwards, each champions was led across the stage and awarded a medal of their own.

In between events, the kids kept it real swimming at the "big pool".