Baby Ortyl: MOHF Cardinals Game 5/18/13

Friends and family, hope you’re having a great weekend. I was “told” to send a reminder to everyone on our huge fundraiser coming up at the May 18^th St. Louis Cardinals game. Yours truly (Greg) will be throwing out the ceremonial First Pitch in honor of Oakes and all those impacted by Congenital Heart Defects at Congenital Heart Night at Busch Stadium. I will have Isla with me out on the field and hope to be sporting a custom-made Mighty Oakes Cardinals jersey. The deadline for purchasing tickets through MOHF is still a ways out – May 3^rd. We still need to sell a couple hundred more tickets to reach our goal so feel free to forward to your friends and families so you can all make it a great night out together. Certainly, the Cardinals will be the main entertainment. My split second throw with the stadium half full is just a warm-up for the fun part of the night! And no, I’m still not practicing….

Now, the big reason for my email today is regarding the special edition, one-time only Mighty Oakes St. Louis Cardinals apparel. The Cardinals have given us special permission to use their logo for some special apparel and we took advantage of the occasion to design some fun shirts and hats for the evening. MONDAY, 4/15 (TOMORROW), IS THE LAST DAY YOU CAN ORDER APPAREL!! We need to place our order tomorrow night and will only be ordering what you have purchased. So if you’re thinking about it, be sure to pull the trigger no later than tomorrow. Becky detailed this on our blog, but I’ll copy the details below as well. But, more importantly, I want to copy a blurb from our blog about where your money is going. Here is one example (of many) of how your generosity is helping others.

A couple of weeks ago we were asked to help a family that is in St. Louis from a neighboring state. This family has 2 babies. Twins. One perfectly healthy, one with a complicated little heart that is requiring intensive care at our beloved SLCH. The parents are stressed to the max worrying about their sick child, but their stress is double. It doesn't matter if their sick little love bug is having a good day or not there is another little love bug that needs them and requires all of the attention that any healthy newborn demands. To complicate things, the Ronald McDonald house, which is a quick 10 minute drive from the hospital, is undergoing renovations and they are not accepting new or long term families. There is, however, a small hotel that is connected to St. Louis Children's Hospital. A quick walk through a maze of raised walkways connects the two structures. When we learned about this special family whose attention is so stressfully divided we immediately agreed to help. So Mighty Oakes Heart Foundation is helping to fund their stay at the hotel. I can only imagine the chaos of healthy twins. I cannot begin to wrap my brain around how this family is managing the stress of one healthy newborn and one in the CICU. But, I feel honored that we can help. I am thrilled that we can help lift some of the burden from their shoulders. I hope that by being able to stay so close to the hospital this family is able to relax as much as they can and enjoy their time together.

For you out-of-towners and Cardinals fans, to buy apparel only (no tickets), simply go to the link below (control/click to go to the site):

http://tmohf.org/index.php/store_items/for_event/2nd_CHA_Night_at_Busch.html

To buy tickets or tickets and apparel, go to this link:

http://www.mightyoakes.org/How-You-Can-Help/Events.html

And here is the merchandise. I have bought the classic t-shirt (I’m nearing a full rainbow in MOHF t-shirt colors now), the dry-fit polo (notice the Cardinals logo on the sleeve) and the ‘ringer’ t-shirt that I LOVE.