Get the Kleenex!!!- Thanks TROY

Troy has spend a lot of time compiling TWO wonderful videos of the pictures that were taken at the 5K race. Everytime I watch it I tear up. I am still so in awe of how many wonderful people came to support us last Saturday. All I can say is... WOW! Thank you again for coming and thank you to Troy for capturing the spirit of the day through the video. I will always remember it! Love you all--Angel

HINT: Two ways to watch the below videos...

1.When watching the video's below, you can avoid stoppage if you start it then pause allowing a few minutes for the video to fully load.

2. If you have Real Player, a tab will pop up above the upper right corner. Click on that and you can download the video.

3. The best way to view it is to only have one youtube frame showing on the monitor.

Charlie Steps- Part I

Charlie Steps-Part II

WOW !

Charlie, Britton, Angel and Rob want to thank you all for helping us have such a wonderful race. How cool was it to see all of you out there in your Charlie T-Shirts, all 333 of you. We know there were those of you who were unable to make it and we missed you but know that your heart was with us. When we arrived Saturday morning what an unbelievable sight it was to see you all there smiling and happy. Many of you with kids that at the early hour must have been no small task getting them prepped for the event and many of you had traveled great distances to come and play with us. Thanks to all of you. I have no doubt that Charlie loved it as well. I only have one regret from the race and that is that Angel and I didn’t get the chance to meet and thank all of you. Some of you who we only know from the blog did come and find us and introduce yourselves and for that we are extremely grateful. I hope that all of you had the chance to at least see Charlie and experience the profound effect he can have on a person. We wish that we could of spent more time with all of you and we could get to know you better. You are all such great people.

As far as the actual race is concerned I’m not gonna lie, Charlie and I cheated. I mean we cheated bad. Per the previous post where Meghan said that we did a quarter lap but that was probably a bit too generous. Admittedly Charlie wasn’t there to race, he was there to see you all. So after several short cuts we were the first stroller to cross the finish but surprisingly enough quite a few runners were already there, most notably a couple of speedsters from UVSU who had a cool little gift for char. Thanks guys. It was neat to see the rest of you come across the line, granted some were a bit quicker and less lathered up than others but it looked like everyone was happy. All this fun and for such a great cause, the BIAU, who in putting on this event provided not only an avenue to raise a few bucks to help out those w/ broken noodles but more helpful for us was it gave us a way to see you all and burn a calorie or two. And trust me, some of us could stand a few more 5k’s in our future, like maybe everyday in our future. Take no offense as I am in need most of all considering I tip the scales at approx. the same weight as an outdoor defecatory platform made of bricks. That being said I hope that this won’t be a one-time deal. We are already planning on next year and would love to see you all there again.

I want to say thanks to a couple of new friends we made at the race. The first was a little boy named Hunter, who while having issues and challenges of his own he and his super kind parents came out in their Charlie’ shirts to support my Super Cooper. Thanks for your support guys, it was great to meet your little man and I continue to covet his totally sweet camo-chair. Next is Jimmy, what a blessing you have been to Charlie and our family. Many of you probably don’t know Jimmy and before the race Saturday either did we. Jimmy was a stranger who like many of you kind of stumbled upon Charlie’s story and I guess like most of us, was affected on some level by him and his travails. Unbeknownst to Angel or I, Jimmy had been working w/ my sibs and made up a bunch of the maroon and silver “taking Charlie steps” wristbands as a way to help raise money to help us pay for the 39 syringes and other more trivial costs, like Dave Duzy’s salary for the last 3 months. Not only did Jimmy go through the struggle of dealing w/ my fam but he paid for the wristbands out of his own pocket and got his place of employment to match the donations given for the wristbands. All he asked for in return was if he could have his picture taken w/ Char. True generosity. Thank you to Nikki and your Piper friends. Thank you Lambert for your camera and your time. Thank you Celeste and Scott for the shirts and tolerating my sisters. Thank you to my family for being civilized and tactful whilst conducting your preparations. Thank you Chris and Chad for providing sustenance. Thank you all for your selfless generosity, from the Woolstenhulme’s to Bubba Jed, you are all in our prayers and we thank you for keeping Charlie in yours. Thanks to Charlie for being so strong and brave and helping us all see what is truly important in life and bringing us together. Most importantly thanks to the Almighty for continuing to send good and kind people here to earth who care about things other than themselves and restoring one man’s faith in humanity. So thank you to all you good and kind people out there, thanks for everything.

Little Picture Update

Here's smidge of a picture update until we get the race pics organized.One of Charlie's girlfriends, Whit.

Charlie's daily dose. Some of those he gets 4 times a day.

Granny helping Charlie with a little pacifying.

BIAU 5K

We had a GREAT time at the 5K yesterday! There was a huge turnout and the Charlie Fans were represented in the gray shirts - we were everywhere, and it was awesome. Charlie & his family got to see family and friends, and meet a lot of new friends. He did great in his stroller and actually was the first to cross the finish line... who cares that he only did a quarter lap! Thanks to a few excellent photographers, we have several hundred pictures, so we will have a video slideshow of those pictures soon.

There are several people who we need to thank for going above and beyond - Celeste at Salcorp for donating the t-shirts and being very patient with us, Scott Collett Design for donating the artwork for the shirts, Jimmy Wilson (not sure where we got Matthews) and crew for making awesome reminderband bracelets (more info to come on those), CH Bagpiping for a special start to the race, Firefighter Lambert for taking 524 photographs, Chris McKay for donating hundreds of bottles of water for the racers, Chad at Little Debbie for donating all the granola bars for the racers, all of our t-shirt deliverers, and Candi, Lindsay, Angel, Suz & Cheryl for providing the snacks for our littlest racers.

Thanks to everyone who was there - or there in spirit. It was another awesome and overwhelming experience. Charlie is an amazing little boy who is loved so, so much.
meghan - charlie's aunt