Charli Anna Foundation

Hey guys! Long time, no update, huh???  Sorry!  We've been real busy!  I'll give you a brief update about our family and then tell you about a new friend of ours that we're real excited about!

Jason and I have been super busy.  He is substitute teaching every day now and that's helping us in a lot of ways.  I think he really likes it, too!  We've had to deal with a lot of changes lately.  I don't want to get into all that, cause I wanna keep this posting upbeat.  Our main focus right now is Taryn, Lauryn, and the Charli Anna Foundation.  All of that is going rather well!

So we shared the news with you all that we were opening up this "Al Hrabosky Home for the Charli Anna Foundation", right??  Then we had all these board meetings to hash out all the legalities and details.  We ended up signing a 1-year lease with the Hrabosky's, but we were REAL nervous because we felt like we were jumping into this without knowing for sure we'd have a family to put in there.  However, we prayed heavily about this individually and as a Board of Directors.  It all just seemed like it was finding us.  We weren't really looking for this opportunity for this apartment, but it just came our way and everything seemed almost easy.  So, we dove in.  I've said all along God has had His hand on this foundation from the moment it started.  I KNEW there was a reason that we'd need this place.  I KNEW it was going to change someone's life during their time of need.  So now's where I tell you about our new friend.

Evrett Lee Murphy was born on 3/22/09 with Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), which is a genetic disorder that causes the immune system to attack the body and damage vital organs.  It is fatal if not treated.  Treatment is chemotherapy, steroids, and a bone marrow transplant.  His parents, Lee & Kristen Murphy, lost their first son, Eli, to this disease when he was only 7 weeks old.  They were told their next child had a 25% chance of having HLH.  Lee and Kristen prayed that their new baby wouldn't have it.  They have had a hard time accepting the news that Evrett does, in fact, have HLH; however, Evrett seems to be doing well and they understand that God is pulling them through.  This family is from Bonne Terre, Missouri, which is quite a long trip to St. Louis Children's Hospital.  Evrett will be hospitalized at SLCH throughout his treatment and bone marrow transplant.  This could be a lengthy stay.  We're hoping the Al Hrabosky Home for the Charli Anna Foundation will be an answer to their prayers and relieve some of their stress!!!  Praise God we can do this for them! 

There are a few things you can do to help.  First, you all got behind us in a mighty way with Charli Anna.  We were hoping you could all do the same for Evrett.  We'll get you his caring bridge page information as soon as they get it set up.  Second, there will be a few blood drives (to test for bone marrow compatibility) in our local area.  When we get the information about those, please please pass it on to your friends and family.  Help us find a match for Evrett!!!  Third, you can help financially by attending our May 9 event at T.R. Hughes ballpark or you can send a donation directly to CAF; PO Box 605; Potosi, MO  63664.  If you put the Murphy's name on the Memo line of your check, we'll make sure to use it for them either by rent, groceries, gas, cash, etc.  Of course, all of our donations are going to families!!! 

Blood Drives
 
In Honor of Evrett Murphy
 
Donate blood in honor of Evrett Murphy at any of the following blood drives:

Sonrise Baptist Church
454 Berry Road
Bonne Terre MO 63628
Date: April 21, 2009
Time: 2:00-6:00
 
Mineral Area College
5270 Flat River Drive
Park Hills MO 63601
Date: April 22, 2009
Time: 8:00-4:00
 
North County High School
7151 Raider Road
Bonne Terre MO 63628
Date: May 6, 2009
Time 2:00-7:00
 

Bone Marrow Drive
 
In honor of Evrett Murphy
 
Location: Primrose Baptist Church
               9308 Highway E
               Bonne Terre MO 63628 

Date: Thursday April 23, 2009  

Time: 3:00p.m. - 7:00p..m.
 
Procedure: Filling out necessary paperwork and providing 4 cheek swab samples.
 
For more information: 573-701-7699
 
 
To join, you only need to:

• Be between the ages of 18 and 60
• Be willing to donate to any patient in need
• Meet the health guidelines

$25 tax deductible donation per screening.
 
To learn more visit, marrow.org

Also, please keep Will Weible and his family in your prayers.  He is home now and we're so glad about that!!! 

Hey guys!  I have some exciting news to share! 

During the bowling/euchre tournament, we raised over $5,500!!! THAT'S AMAZING!!!  We are now planning some really incredible things for the future!!  I would LOVE to reveal our plans to you all right now, but we have some things to finalize first.  I will keep you posted, I promise!  Thank you to all of those who attended the event, gave generously, helped out, donated items, etc.  It was awesome!!!

Jason and I made the trip to Hadley's funeral on Saturday.  It was a long drive, but it was worth it!  We wanted to be there to support Patrick and Holly because we knew what a difficult day they would be having.  Unfortunately we didn't get to stay for the hardest part, the end of all the services, because there were tornado warnings and we had to get on the road before they hit.  The funeral was a beautiful tribute to Hadley and the church was absolutely packed!  They had to bring in chairs for people to sit in and there was still standing room only.  It's because Hadley was such a special little girl and so many people love her!  Please continue to send up prayers for Hadley's family.  She is resting now, but they may never rest well again until they see her. 

We hope the next family we get to help will be as special to us as the Griders have been.  This case was particularly close to home for us because we met the Griders while Charli Anna was in the hospital.  We all considered Charli Anna and Hadley to be friends and I think both our families expected that one day the two girls would write letters back and forth, call each other, and keep in touch because they shared such similar health circumstances.  I was not expecting that God would let them reunite in friendship in such a way as this, but this is the hand we've been dealt.  Now it's up to us to carry on their legacies and we're determined to do so through this foundation.  Charli Anna and her friend will not be forgotten!!!

Jason and I had a very rewarding day today.  Since it was a snow day and I didn't have to work, we traveled to SLCH to help out our first family.  The parents are Patrick & Holly Grider and their sweet little girl is named Hadley.  She received a heart transplant while we were still up at SLCH.  She was doing great when we left the hospital, but the news they've been getting lately hasn't been great.  They've been in and out of the hospital with Hadley for about 8 months now.  Holly gave up her job to be by Hadley's side, while Patrick spends lots of time on the road between his job and the hospital.  We know their pain!  It's unbearable, stressful, numbing, and heartbreaking.  One day, things are going great and the next day, it all falls apart.  When we saw sweet Hadley today, she looked beautiful as ever!  Her breathing was a little labored, but Holly assured us that it is an improvement from the past couple of days.  We're REAL worried about these guys!  Please help us reach out to them!  Today, we gave them a good-sized donation, but I know they could use more help!  If you'd like to send a donation for the Grider family, please mail it to "The Charli Anna Foundation; P.O.Box 605; Potosi, MO  63664".  Put "Attn:  Grider" on the envelope.  Rest assured, though, any donation you make to The Charli Anna Foundation will be going to families just like the Grider's and we may even be able to help them out again after our next fundraiser on Jan. 24.  That's the GOAL!  If you cannot donate money, I completely understand, but please donate your time in prayer for this little girl!  To find out more information about Hadley, go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/hadleygrider and read all about her journey!

The Vendor Bingo was a HUGE success!  Thank you so much to everyone who attended and/or gave donations to our cause!  The final tally isn't in yet because we have some more figuring to do, but it looks like we raised about $2500.  THAT'S AMAZING!  The vendors provided us with some wonderful prizes for the Bingo and many people left with arms full of "stuff"!!  Thank you to all who volunteered to help.  I want to send a special thank you to Jill and Monica in the babysitting room!  They had 3 1/2 hours of non-stop fun, as I'm sure you can imagine!  Also, thanks to Cheryl, Larry, Phyllis, Steph, Laura, Audra, Faye, Benny, Cody H., Chris F., Aunt Chris, Aunt Marcia, Stacie, Whitney, Taryn, Megan, John and Francis, the middle school, all of the vendors, St. Joachim (for the bingo necessities), Jerry N., Robert P., and if I'm leaving anyone out, I'm sorry.  I haven't had a lot of sleep:-)  This fundraiser, in combination with our golf fundraiser, will allow us to pay the IRS for the 501(c)3 application and we are working with the social worker at the hospital so that we'll be able to help at least one family before the holidays.  We'll keep you posted on that progress.  Thank you all once again for being so generous and we'll post some pictures on here a.s.a.p.  We love you all!

Well, tomorrow would have been Charli Anna's 9 month birthday.  I think it's fitting that we're having an event for the foundation the following day.  Perhaps it will distract us just enough that we won't dwell on things too much.  I hope you're all planning to come to the Vendor Bingo Friday night!  I think we're going to have quite a crowd and I'm just soooo looking forward to it.  Having success with this event will be an appropriate way to remember such a sweet girl and honor her name by helping others.  By the way, we got our t-shirts in and they look really good.  We wanted tan, but they turned out to be almost an olive color.  Regardless, they look awesome!  I'll be proud to wear mine.  I'll probably wear it out!  Well, there's lots to do. . . I've got to run!

Hello everyone!  Welcome to our website!  Thank you for being interested in our cause.  Our next big event is Vendor Bingo on Nov. 14 at John Evans Middle School in Potosi.  The doors open for shopping at 6PM and bingo starts at 7PM.  Basically, you just come in and we'll have various vendors (Pampered Chef, PartyLite, Mary Kay and many others) set up with booths around the cafeteria.  You shop their booths/catalogs from 6:00-7:00.  Then, you can buy bingo cards for $5 each and play bingo at 7PM for prizes from the vendors.  We're going to have concessions and babysitting available.  Also, we'll be having a dessert auction at the end and we're going to raffle off a 5-piece Pampered Chef pots and pans set.  It's a $500 value approximately.  Tickets for the raffle are being sold now for $1 each or 6 for $5.  Please contact us if you'd like to buy raffle tickets.  Our address is P.O. Box 605; Potosi, Missouri 63664.  Our phone number is 573-438-8732. You can also mail donations to that address.  Thank you and I hope to see you at our Vendor Bingo!!!!!

The 1st annual Charli Anna Foundation golf tournament was a great success yesterday!  We had 20 teams entered and 21 hole sponsors.  The foundation made approximately  $2400 for families with sick babies!!!!  The board will soon be developing an application process for families and hopefully we can begin helping some shortly after our vendor bingo event in November.  We're very excited and thankful for the turn out yesterday.  Thank you to the Charli Anna Foundation Board of Directors, a group of people who are hard working and committed!  Also, to our helpers yesterday:  Audra & Jaxon Day, Nicki Boyer, Taryn & Lauryn Merseal, Megan & Faith Merseal, Whitney Boyer, Hannah & Clara Villmer.  Another thanks goes to Mark, Rusty & Scott at Fourche Valley.  It's such a beautiful golf course and the fall colors highlighted our day!  Also, thanks to Country Mart for helping out with the food.  Charli Anna was surely looking down with a smile!  I've been trying all day to get some pictures posted.  Maybe I'll have them in the gallery in a day or two.

I hope everyone checks out our events calendar. We are wrapping up our gathering of sponsors this week and hope to have shirts for sale in time for the Vendor Bingo in November.  If you know someone who wants to sponsor at level 3 ($220), please call Jason at 573-631-3594 and let him know before we put the shirts in production on the 23rd or 24th.  If you know someone who wants to sponsor just the golf tournament ($50), please call us by Monday, the 20th to let me know.  The kids and I are going to start working on signs that night.  Thank you all once again for all of your support.  I hope you find all the information you're looking for here on this website.  After the golf tournament, we'll have some pictures posted.  Can't wait for that!

We are proud to host and help design this very special part of the Charli Anna Foundation's mission.