~Blog-worthy News~

Today Kaitlyn passed her written driver's license test (on the very first try!).
Yeah Kaitlyn! Just 2 short weeks from today and she turns 16.


Relay Wrap-Up News
Tonight at the 2008 Relay For Life of Tacoma Wrap-Up event, Team Merrill Lynch received 6 awards:

Overall Top Individual Fundraiser - Joan Lougheed
Top Online Individual Fundraiser - Joan Lougheed
2nd Place - Individual Youth Fundraiser - Kaitlyn Lewis
2nd Place - Corporate Team
2nd Place - Online Fundraising Team
2nd Place - Per Capita Fundraising Team

I am very proud to be part of a team that cares so much about the community, our employees, and takes up the fight against cancer.
I am even more proud of my daughter, Kaitlyn, who has "relayed" for the last 5 years. In each of 4 of those last 5 years, she has personally raised over $1000 in the fight against cancer, and in the last 2 years, she has been recognized as the 2nd place youth fundraiser for the entire Tacoma event. This year she raised $1680.
She relays, in her own words, because:
"No one deserves to suffer through cancer. Those of us that don’t have cancer need to help those that do. Cancer has become such a common occurrence, and we don’t know what the future holds for us and the people we love."

Prom

The same weekend that Tim, Kaitlyn and I were Relaying.....Rose was doing something important too.....like attending the Prom! She went to West Seattle High's Junior/Senior Prom with a new "friend" Alex.
According to Rose, boyfriends are too much work so she's just enjoying hanging out with her friends. We'll see how long that lasts.
Alex is the tallest boy in the photo and Rose would be the "la petite" blond.

Relay For Life

Relay For Life of Tacoma has come to another successful end. The Team from Merrill Lynch spent 24 hours walking the track to raise money for cancer research, patient programs and education.

This year the team raised over $23,000. Little Miss Kaitlyn raised $1645 at last count all by herself for this great cause.

Friday night at the event there were over 100 Merrill Lynch employees, family and friends there for opening ceremonies. It was an incredible site to see this sea of yellow on the track as we proudly wore our Running With The Bulls team tee-shirts, which have the names of our family and friends that are cancer survivors and the names of those we've lost to this dreaded disease listed on the back.

I was able to catch up with some old friends at Relay, Chris and Dani. We haven't seen each other much since Christmas and it was nice to be able to hang for a few minutes and catch up. We are hoping to get together for breakfast again here soon, which will be a welcome reason to get up early (which is NOT my favorite thing!).

Thank you to everyone that supported this year's event. You can and did make a difference in the lives of so many with your generous support!