Share your memories with us

Saturday January 7th will mark two years since Charlotte emerged from her consuming chrysalis and flew away as a beautiful butterfly. 

We will remember the day with friends and family at 1 PM in our cul-de-sac. Anyone local is welcome to attend. We will have plenty of balloons and blank notes so people can write and send messages to Charlotte.


If you cannot attend our Remember CJ event, we invite you to remember sweet Charlotte in your own way. Please leave a message in the comments, either here in the blog or on our Facebook page, telling us how you have marked the day, a favorite Charlotte memory, or anything else you would like to share.


We appreciate the love and support that we feel from our community at this time. 


With much love,


Rachel & Roger

If you have tissues handy, you're invited to watch this video created by our friends, Julia Dollison & Kerry Marsh, in honor of Charlotte. It's a beautiful tribute to our girl.  

Radiance from Julia Dollison on Vimeo.

About the music: transcribed from Keith Jarrett's improvised solo piano recording in "Radiance Part 8", vocal a cappella arrangement by Kerry Marsh, lyrics by Julia Dollison, performed by Kerry Marsh & Julia Dollison.

Lyrics:

Sometimes in her sleep, she smiles.

Is she dreaming? is she far away?

Sometimes in her sleep, she laughs.

Is she happy? does she wish she could stay?

Sometimes in her sleep, she cries,

and you hold her and pray.

Morning comes, and she'll forget -

Things we dream about never make much sense.

Then the sun shines in, so bright,

just like her radiance.

All these moments fly by so quickly,

but she never seems to mind -

as long as you're by her side.

Sometimes in her sleep,

She awakens to find you were there all the while.

With a smile, she returns to her dreams.

How Cool is That?

January is starting off with a BANG! 


First of all, a group of aspiring marketing students at King William High School are using our organization for their DECA project.  For one part of their project, they have created new CJSTUF plastic bracelets to sell at their school.  They have given us a limited quantity of the bracelets to distribute to anyone interested in the Richmond area. Suggested donation is $1 per bracelet and all proceeds will benefit CJSTUF.  

The bracelets are pink and purple and feature our name. 

We will have a bunch of the bracelets at the Remember CJ event this Saturday. Roger and I will also carry the bracelets around until we sell out. Contact Roger (or me) if you would like to get a few.  


Next on the agenda, there are only 2 more days until voting officially ends for the Eagle Rare Life Award. After all the votes are tallied, there will be an official selection process by the good folks at Eagle Rare to pick the top 20 and, eventually, the top 7 prize winners.  We are hopeful that Rachel's strong third place status in the popular vote will yield great results for the foundation.  There's still time to submit your vote. Thanks to all those who have been voting on our behalf.  We expect to hear news of final results sometime in February.  

Speaking of voting, Macaroni Kid of Richmond has generously offered to give $1 for every "Like" that their fan page gets on Facebook during the month of January (up to $200). If you live in the Richmond area and are looking for great family activities or deals, Macaroni Kid is a great resource. Please visit their Facebook page and thank them for supporting CJSTUF.




Finally, you may have heard through the grapevine that the Thumbs Up Ball is back! For those of you who remember the event from 2010, we are excited that this year's family dance and silent auction is going to be just as much fun! We will be in a new location this year (the Shady Grove Methodist Church in Short Pump) and the date is Saturday, February 18th, 4:30-7:00 PM.  Tickets are $10 per person and space is limited. We expect this event to sell out and registration is open now on our website.  


We are also currently seeking donations of items for our Silent Auction and raffle during the Thumbs Up Ball.  If you would like to be featured as an event sponsor, contact our event coordinator for details.  


That's all for now! Whew! What happened to that leisurely holiday vacation????

Remembering CJ

For anyone interested in helping us remember Charlotte on the day of her death, we are going to have a small get-together at our house at 1 PM. We will have some helium balloons to release with notes to CJ. You may bring your own balloons/notes as well (no mylar please).  Then we'll have some fellowship time with coffee and hot cocoa/chocolate milk for all.  Anyone is welcome. There is an invitation on Facebook if you would like to RSVP

If you live far away and can not attend, you are welcome to remember Charlotte in your own way. Please feel free to share your remembrances on 1/7 on the CJSTUF facebook page or on our blog. We will set up a special page on January 6th and you will be able to add comments to that post with your memories of Charlotte or ways that you are remembering her that day.  


Thank you,



Rachel & Roger

"One G*# D*&#ed Chocolate Chip Cookie"

Or better yet, "That Damned Kiss." - A Mighty Wind

Or slightly more diffused, "You know you've ruined it for me..." - Out Of Africa

We all have had events in our lives where one little detail eventually became more than just a detail in the overall fabric of our experience.  It morphed into an major element of the plot, influencing further development and screwing up your plan for where you thought you were going.  This butterfly did that to me:

A few days ago, Rachel came in the house and said, "Have you seen the new butterfly?"

We both went out and she showed me the purple butterfly that someone had covertly attached to Homer the Pine Tree overhanging CJ's Butterfly Bush.  We occasionally find things on or around CJ left by people we didn't see and they are always appreciated but I think I must have been in a certain frame of mind to receive this certain butterfly because it changed the course of my psyche.

Rachel and I had just come back from our vacation (it was fabulous, in case you hadn't heard) and I wasn't ready to get back into reality.  On top of that, I had been having lots of little "moments" that were weighing me down.  Moments brought on by the weirdest things.  Like hearing a song or being in a place where Charlotte had been. The bus was certainly back, parked squarely on my chest, and my "woe-is-me" song writing machine was picking up speed.  And a part of me was ready to stay on that path for a while. There's value (at least to me) in feeling the pain.  At least when I feel the pain, I know I'm remembering her. (I hate "at leasts")

And then I saw that damned butterfly.  It wasn't like the weight was lifted or anything too dramatic like that but it reminded me that people are thinking of us, which is comforting, and that I need to get my head on straight.  It even altered the direction of one of the songs I had been working on for a long time.

The problem is that it was fixing to be a pretty good sad song before then.  Now it's all confused and I may have to break it up into two different songs that sound a lot alike.

Be that as it may, the song writing machine (along with my attitude) has come out of its nose-dive and has leveled off for now.  The moments are still there, nothing has changed in that respect, but I'm at least able to deal with them for the time being.

Thanks to whoever placed that damned butterfly.

In other news, the Foundation is ending the year with both good and bad news.  The good news is that we were able to help 30 families, one way or another, to the tune of $14,000. That takes the total amount of aid since incorporation to around $27,000 in two years.  (We thought we were closer to $30K for a while but it still ain't too shabby)

The bad news is that we still have 13 families on the waiting list.  That's $6,500 if you want an amount.  We're really hoping that some last minute fundraising opportunities will help narrow that gap.

One not-so-last-minute FUN-raiser is the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10K on March 31, 2012.  TEAM CJ will be in effect and there are different ways you can get involved:

1 - Join TEAM CJ, collect pledges, and run in the 10k.  If you commit to raising $500 or more, CJSTUF will give you a code to register for free!

2 - Go to MY fund raising page and make a pledge.  My goal for all of TEAM CJ is $10,000 but if I could do that personally, wouldn't that be totally cool!?!  The Mother Runners are going to be involved somehow. We haven't solidified details but there may be a pink running skirt involved! :-)

3 - Be a cheer-er for TEAM CJ along the route.  We need spirit, we know we do! We need spirit, how about YOU!?!

By the way, there are new racing shirts (real running shirts!) for all Team CJ participants!

GO TEAM CJ!!!

January will also be "Remember CJ Month" when participating stores will be donating up to 5% of sales for the month to CJSTUF.  Our first participant will be the Bed Corner in Stonewall Square in Mechanicsville.  Come buy a bed or mattress in January and help CJSTUF!

If you own a business or know of one that would be interested in participating, have them contact us asap.

I think that's all for now.  I'm sure Rachel will be back on with something I've forgotten.

Bye for now,

Roger

p.s. If you want me to explain the chocolate chip cookie reference, please let me know.