Cayman's Benefit (continued)

As I promised, here is more about Cayman's benefit:

It was such an amazing time. We are so blessed to be apart of a loving community full of supportive and caring people. It was estimated between 700-800 people came!!

The food was great!! Our good friend, Matt, who happens to be a professional Chef, worked the grill!! ("Thank you Matt!! The burgers and hot dogs were amazing. Another big thanks to those that donated the food. Your time you took to prepare a dish and bring it is so greatly appreciated.") Rita, a gorgeous lady in our church and owns a local pizza store, helped coordinate all the food and the kitchen help ("Thank you Rita and all the rest of the kitchen staff! It's a lot of work to keep the food coming for that many people! You all were a big help!")

There were 4 local christian bands that played and each gave a wonderful performance! Even Aunt Sam and Uncle Mark got some percussion time in. ("To the bands, thank you for playing. Cayman did not seem to enjoy your loud music but everyone else did :o).")

The silent auction seemed to be the hit feature (well, besides Cayman that is..hehe). There were so many fantastic items that were donated. People had a lot of fun "shopping" and bidding. ("Thank you to those of you that had a hand in coordinating the auction-Grandma Cindy, Grandma Sue, Aunt Stacey, Karen, and Tammi. We also thank each one of you that donated to the silent auction. A lot of time and creativity were put into the items and that made the "shopping" and bidding fun. We also thank those of you that participated in the silent auction. It was fun to watch so many of you win your items and those of you that were out bid, it was entertaining to watch you be so proud of yourself for bidding up the item and lose with such grace. Everyone had such a friendly, competitive attitude. Thank you all for that!!")

The kids had fun with their games. ("Thank you Mr. Reid for letting us borrow your awesome games. Thank you Grandma Sue for picking up the games, providing candy, and coordinating the kid activities at the benefit. Carla, thank you for bringing the nerf footballs for the kids to take home. All the children were running around happy and energetic!! A big thanks to the face painters. I saw some of the kids walking around with their hands, faces, etc. painted up beautifully. You people have talent! I was impressed!)

A special thank you to Sara and Kadyn, who drove over 1 1/2 hours to come to the benefit! Far as I know she was the guest that came the furthest. Sara is a mom to a precious little boy born with hydrocephalus. I met Sara on the internet several months ago, and at the benefit was the first we met in person. She is so sweet. ("Sara, I had so much fun talking with you in person. Kadyn is amazing and you are a wonderful mommy to him. Thank you for making that long drive. Meeting you was a highlight of that day for me.")

"To the Burkholder family: Thank you Larry and Greg for running the sound and picture slide show during the event. And Karen, thank you for handling all the financial collections from the benefit. You are a very precious family to us."

In case you missed that number at the beginning...700-800 people came!!! That's a lot of people and a lot of love!! The Oooo's and Awwww's over Cayman made our parent hearts swell with pride. We wish we could thank each one of you individually but we do not have the resources to do so. Your attendance was the final touch to making the benefit a great success. There were several people that could not make it to the event but still wanted to showed their support. We received cards, phone calls, and in person visits before and after the benefit, flooding our home with so much love. We thank you as well for your thoughtfulness. Mike and I are deeply humbled by the love and support people have given us.

And to Aunt Stacey, thank you. You got this benefit started and kept the ball rolling to see it through. You did a lot. There was not a single area of it that did not bear your touch. I do not know how you managed to coordinate such a large event. I hope you are so proud of yourself at the success it was. We thank you for your hard work and wish you many peaceful nights rests now that it is over...and you too Uncle Dan.

My Uncle Paul brought his camera and captured the event with a 122 pictures!! To view those photos click here. ("Thank you Uncle Paul for doing that! You know how much I love pictures!!! I feel the urge for scrapbooking coming on.")

We do not want to miss thanking anyone. I'm trying to go through all of it making sure I've covered everything. If I have missed someone please forgive me and bring it to my attention because we desire for everyone to know how grateful we are.