Fundraising Dinner For Aiden

Aiden and I recently traveled with my mom to Michigan to visit our family! We were so excited to finally introduce Aiden to our huge family but we had no idea just how special this trip would be.

When my grandma found out I was putting together a fundraising cookbook to help out with travel and medical expenses, she wanted to help out in another way as well. So my family started planning a spaghetti dinner to help raise money for us. They designed a flyer to tell people a little bit about Aiden and why we needed to travel to Chicago for his surgery. It was an all you can eat spaghetti (and much more) dinner for $5 with all sorts of basket raffles and 50/50. My Aunt Amy was the mastermind behind putting this all together. She does event planning so this is right up her alley.

It was held at my Aunt Barb's house on Saturday, June 18th. When I arrived there, I couldn't believe what I saw. There was a ton of food (most of which was kindly donated), several baskets to raffle off, a 50/50 drawing, and 2 Authentic Red Wings jerseys signed by Datsyuk that people could buy tickets for. The baskets were donated by family and friends and they were amazing. People couldn't stop buying tickets to increase their chances! Here are some pictures of a few of them.

Perfect for the 4th of July

This one was extremely popular! It had 4 tickets to Detroit Tigers game!

Another popular one

I couldn't believe how many people were showing up for Aiden. It was so incredible. I was also excited to educate people on CMN. My Aunt Amy asked me to speak just before the drawings. It was hard...I started crying right from the beginning. I felt so blessed to have such an amazing family who did all of this for my sweet little Aiden. Then Amy was handed an envelope to read in front of everyone. It was a surprise that no one knew about from the local Sheraton Hotel. Their employees participate in $5 jean Friday's and then donate the money to all different causes. They had a gracious donation of  $250 to give to Aiden. WOW is all I could say.

Everything about the day was perfect. There are not enough words to describe how thankful I am for my family putting this together. They raised a total of $2884!!!!!!! It was so much fun and I will never forget what my family did for us!

Some more photos from the day!

Aunt Amy enjoying the delicious dinner!

Aunt Jennifer with one of the signed jerseys

Aiden enjoying time with Aunt Kelly

Aiden with his great grandma

Cousins swimming!