Parkinson’s Puzzle Hunt Fundraiser a Sweet Success

The First Ever- Parkinson's Puzzle Hunt 

A Sweet Success!

There is so much to tell you about- where to begin? Why a sweet success? For so many reasons- First off - the people who came. So many people! We didn't think with the first time that we would get that many people. Mostly it seemed we would have to force the home teams to show up. I didn't get my family signed up until the night before! So I giggled as I filled in the Registration form, it had a space for why are you coming to this event? I wrote “because my mother/wife made me” for my 2 grown up sons and husband's team. I gave pretty much, the same answer for my 2 grand daughter's and daughter-in-law's and Auntie Christine's team. By the way, I expected the girl's to win (for youngest team) but they didn't. Rats we were very fair! We decided to do it by the average. (We added up the ages of the teams and divided it by how many people were on the team.) 

My dear friend Ara was the first person to join in. She lives in Florida. And when I filled out the form for her over the phone, and got to the space that asked what age are you? she said, in a pleasant, no nonsense, Ara voice, “None of your D*mn Business” (The reason we asked some of the questions was to get answers for the team trophies-we weren't really trying to be nosy! But still it would have been interesting to know 

Ms. R:-)

Holly strong armed her 15 year old son and his 3 good friends to join as a team. They ended up having a ball (at least it looked like it) and won a prize. It was great to see her son, he looked so tall and grown up! I think I had last seen him at age 8? And like my son Brendon had, when he was a young man, Zach had fabulous, very long, brown hair. 

It was a sweet success because of what my friend Theresa (who I didn't know was coming to the event, and delighted me by showing up with her grand daughter and daughter-in-law, who I had never met, but I knew from Theresa's stories) Theresa said to me during the event, that she filled that same space in the registration form that asked why you came to the event -with “Because I love Nancy.” That I'll cherish forever my friend!

Mostly it was a sweet success because of all the people who showed up. Neil brought his wife Abby, who I hadn't met before but felt I knew because of his stories. I got to meet Steve (Gallagos, not my hubby) in person and his family. We had been seeing each other at Jill's PD Dance class for months but on Zoom, never in person! Judy came too! Thank you Judy! It was wonderful to see everyone.

There is something about knowing another person has the same disease as you have that makes you comrades right from the moment you know. 

And then there were the people that I had never met before. Some I knew because of the stories I had heard from their sisters or brothers or son's or daughters. Kathryn's sister was there looking gorgeous and she has Parkinson's. So had her father.

It was a sweet success because of the people who I didn't know, who had Parkinson's and answered “how many years?” when I asked and shook my hand. We knew, that we each have our struggles and they are deeply serious, but we also were there because we were showing support for each other and because we still could have fun!

Plus, there were the friends with PD who live far away and e mailed me and wished us luck on the event. Thank you again, Chris and Patrick for your donations to the cause!

And there was Corrine, who made my heart sing because she was here in town and present with her husband Burhan (a very determined and good puzzler!) and our dear jafa, friend Talitha.

WOOHOOO! It was a wonderful time!

I want to mention my coworkers too. Actually I wasn't feeling too well, so they were the real workers of the magic. I mostly sat there and smiled. Of course, I also bragged about all the magnificent artists who had donated art for the door prizes. Everyone who participated, got to choose a prize.

As a matter of fact, I want to give a shout out to my artist friends, thank you so much, for the art donations!:

Michael Fleishman-(he lives in another state now and he wrote and asked if he could donate art!!)

Corrine Bayraktaroglu 

Tara Anderson

Gayle Sampson

Barbara Vandecreek

Rosie Huart

Libby Rudolf

Christine Klinger

Theresa Mayer

Joan Young

Angie Day

Ara Marx

Amy Achor

Nancy Mellon

Nisa Blackwell-Turner

Talitha Greene

There was magic in the air. Holly our Puzzle Queen, answered all the puzzle questions and Caroline and Pam who are the regular makers of all things magical at the YS Senior Center were handling everything else. We had cookies and chilled, red, water melon slices and vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup if you wanted it and sprinkles (my grand daughters were first up for the ice cream,- they love ice cream and they really love sprinkles! Shiloh's eyes lit up- she whispered in an awed voice “ice cream and cookies?!! (Mommy has a firm rule of only one sugary treat at a time.) 

IT WAS A WONDERFUL CREW!

And lastly, I want to say thank you to all the businesses in town that help out with prizes and sponsorships over and over. (Yellow Springs has a lot of events!) 

Our sponsors were The Community Foundation, Dark Star and Tweedle D's.

You are amazing and so generous! Thank you!

The gift card prizes that made the opening of the locked box so exciting were from:

360 Private Training Studio •  Asanda •  Dino’s Cappuccinos •  Emporium Wine & Underdog Cafe  •  Glen Garden Gifts  •  Heaven on Earth Emporium  •  Mazu (they are the newest restaurant in town and created a gift card for the first time to give to us!)Puzzles Plus •  Rosie’s Natural Foods • Urban Handmade

Afterwards many people came up and thanked us and asked 'will you do it again?'

We advertised it as the First Ever- that sure sounds like there should be a second. We'll see, with Parkinson's we don't know what will happen next. 

Yesterday was a good day.

Cheers,

Nancy and the Snark