Good Morning Arizona!!!

Tara & Liz live on Good Morning Arizona 8-19-08! Liz is famous : ) Check her out!!

Thanks to our celebrity mixer Tara Hitchcock, Elizabeth was invited to share her story and appreciation for Florence Critenton on 3TV's morning show!

Tara also spent some time in the previous hour telling her co-anchor about how much fun she had volunteering at the Cold Stone Creamery fundraiser.

Check out the clips here -- and thanks again to all the people and businesses that supported the event!

What a Hit!!!

Fundraiser Fun!!!!

We had such an amazing turn out! We all had guests and friends that came out...young and old...people were there to see Elizabeth and support her, people were there to support all the gals of the Summer 2008 Big Give, all the people from Florence Crittenton came out, people came out to support Tara supporting us! It was so much fun!

There was a constant crowd and it was a consistent busy!

Elizabeth and Tara had real heavy hands when it came to the servings, so everyone got their money's worth!

It was so fun to see everyones families and friends come together for such a great cause! The community really got involved and everyone stayed around chatting and visiting and visiting! It was really powerful to see Elizabeth in such a leadership role and she shared with me on more than one occasion how great it was to see the people in her past and present come together to support her in this fundraiser.

Everyone commented on how happy Elizabeth looked and on how much fun it looked like she was having.






Kierland Cold Stone Creamery owner Martha was so sweet and fun to work with and her crew was awesome! Thank you to everyone who came out and to everyone whose efforts went towards making this fundraiser so fun and such a success!

Spending time in our community....

Learning about the homeless community in Arizona & how we can help?

Back when we were planning for our big fundraiser day we decided that we would try and make it an entire day of giving...we decided that we would head to the homeless community in downtown Phoenix and educate ourselves on what there is to offer for the homeless and how we could give our assistance...

We spent the day with a lovely girl named Laura who is part of the Americorp program and currently employed by Lodestar in downtown Phoenix. Lodestar is one of many organizations that have systems in place to help the homeless. She gave us a tour of the facilities and educated us on how their systems and levels work for the men and women that utilize the programs in place. It was a real eye opening experience, even if you have seen it before, it is still shocking.

It was really special to see the cafe that Laura and my friend Ronnie started from scratch, and it was great to have my youngest brother Max with us....Elizabeth asked tons of questions and was very inquisitive regarding the ins and outs of the services that were offered.

I feel like we were all inspired to remember that there are people out there that could use our help and we were definitely reassured of our blessings. It was great to give our time without receiving anything in return.

Pictured from left to right: Elizabeth, Max & Laura

The last meeting : (

Wrapping Up!

Tonight was our last formal meeting! : (

I can't believe it...Because we only have an hour at our meetings, I had an agenda and stuck to it!

We touched on the last social with Liz that is coming up on September 6th...Dream boards & Bagels. We discussed where we were with our pre-fundraiser duties, spoke about the upcoming event we are looking forward to with Florence Crittenton where Liz will have a platform to share the proceeds from the fundraiser, then recapped the weekly updates...Dentist appt with Liz, Dr appt with Liz, Liz's Colorado trip, visit to Lund Cadillac, Liz's volunteer plans with Ms. Berkley, the beautiful moment I had sharing the blog with Liz yesterday, and discussing how we are going to continue to stay connected with Liz after the summer has gone!

It was very special to say the least! At the end of the meeting we discussed how the personal challenges that we took on weekly affected us and made us aware...we discussed what we have personally gained out of this give...and shared our thoughts and feelings with one another in closure...it was a very sweet time together that will be with us always!

Thank You Florence Crittenton

Florence Crittenton is excited and they are getting the word out too!!!

This was just one of many emails in the inbox today showing the support and promotion of our upcoming event! It is so great to see the excitement!

Fundraiser for the Florence Crittenton Center!!!

Good Morning Arizona's anchor Tara Hitchcock is our Celebrity Scooper for the Florence Crittenton Fundraiser!!! Thanks Tara for supporting

such a great cause!

We are going to do a fundraiser with Elizabeth for the Florence Crittenton Center!!!!


As a final arrangement for our Summer's Big Give we wanted to support Elizabeth in Giving back to an organization of her choice and she chose the Florence Crittenton Center!


JOIN US MONDAY AUGUST 18 from 4-7pm at the Cold Stone Creamery in the Kierland Shopping Center! 40% of all the proceeds purchased will be donated to the Florence Crittenton Center! Come out and support Elizabeth and the Summer 2008 Big Give!

OMG OMG OMG!!!

~How can it get any better?~

~Rollin along!!~

This was great! After Liz's very intense & amazing journey to Colorado, me, Gabi & Jordan picked her up from the airport and headed straight to Lund Cadillac to pick up her truck....but guess what...it wasn't ready so they put her in a brand new Cadillac Escalade with Gold bling!!! Yes, no kidding! What a treat....a true dream builder!! This special luxury cake from Lund just got icing!!

Liz was stoked and so excited...she will head to pick up her truck from them tomorrow but in the meantime she has all the patience waiting!!

Thank you again Scott Brown, and ALL the people at Lund Cadillac! Thank you for your care and generosity and efforts in rearranging Liz's world!!!!

Colorado Time!

~Have fun and we'll see you when you get back!!!~


Elizabeth and I dropped off her truck at Lund Cadillac, headed to Einstein bagels for a quick bite, then went to the airport to begin the process of checking in!

It was really cool to show her the ropes of checking in and where to go, security lines this and gates that.

Jimmy, Dede, Marisa and I visited with her for about a half hour and showered her with words of strength and little reminders and well wishes. She was very strong and we are so excited for her!


We took a couple of pictures with her when we were headed to the gate....

Fundraiser Preparation!!!

We have lots to do!

An insert from my follow up email below:

"*** We spent time planning for Liz's send off this Friday at the airport and her welcome back on Sunday! If you are able to join for the send off at Terminal 4 at the airport this Friday at 11am, please email me before 7pm tonight...Also if you are able to join in for her welcome back at the airport, Terminal 4, 9:30am Sunday, please email me here before 7pm Friday night! :)

I will be responding to both groups separately with the details of where to meet etc...

*** Next we set some plans of action in place for the fundraiser & fundraiser preparation! Holy mother do we have things to do!

Outside of coming out and supporting the actual fundraiser itself by coming with your family and friends to buy an ice cream on Monday August 18th from 6-8pm, and outside of emailing your entire social network and entire professional network the fancy flyer invitation for the event, which I know all of you are going to do, if you are willing to give your time and efforts in pre-fundraiser responsibilities, please email me here and let me know...we would definitely appreciate the assistance."

And just when you thought the planning could end, there was more!!!!

"We will be sending all of you the email flyer's to share in your social and professional networks with in the next few days, and we will keep the girls that are actively involved in the pre-fundraiser efforts up to date and in the loop on a regular basis!

*** This next month is going to be great! Aside from the fundraiser on the 18th, Liz has 3 major appointments coming up in the next few weeks... one to shadow and volunteer with Ms. Berkley at the elementary school in Arcadia, her first major dental appointment, and her first appointment with Alissa on Monday the 11th.

*** We are also planning on our final "social" with Liz....it will be Saturday September the 6th, bagels and dream boards...we pushed it out to accommodate everyone...we wanted to give all the girls that wanted to be present enough time to plan it into their schedule! I will send an Evite for this one : )"

It's nuts how far we have come and how close to the summer's end we are already! It's gonna fly by!!!

It's amazing how things happen

LUND CADILLAC

Liz will be getting the final repairs on her car while she is in Colorado! Thank you Scott Brown, Chris Wisely, Vern Foutz, and both the sales and service departments at Lund Cadillac!

"Shauna-
I'm sending this from home because I'm not sure if you received my response from work earlier today.

I spoke with our service manager and explained what our sales department was going to be doing for your friend. He told me to pick a day that would be convenient for her to drop off the truck and that the best approach would be for our technicians to diagnose it and make sure we are addressing the correct and only issues at hand.

He also told me that he would take care of whatever he could over and above the sales commitment for work needed on her truck if it is more than anticipated. So we should be set to fix whatever the problem(s) might be and I will try to line up a car for her to drive while hers is in the shop... just in case it takes a little time to find out what the situation is. Please let me know what day works for her schedule and/or yours and I will make an appointment for her and put the rest together. I received your email at work but I'm not sure if you can receive mine, so feel free to send me the information to either address, home or work.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do.

Sincerely,
Scott Brown LUND CADILAC"