Thursday, August 5, 2010

CHD Awareness and the Chloe Duyck Memorial Fund/Hope 4 Tiny Hearts.

Words can't even describe how AWESOMELY cool this race car is:

But, I'll try because it's just that cool.
First, mad props to Facebook because without it I'd be totally lost in the CHD community (come to think of I'm still lost because I'm not so savvy with digital thingies) anyway.. therefore me having no clue that something so wonderful (yet again) was about to happen. Also, I wouldn't have met my real life buddy Kristin who told me about this race car a little while back. But I digress...
So, with that said, I didn't even realize that there was another really awesome way to help spread congenital heart defect awareness coming up without my buddy Kristin telling me!
The problem is Congenital Defect Awareness still has very little acknowledgment in the media and all around us. You see tiny touches of the subject but if you blink an eye you miss it. And that's been maybe for the past 2 years, or at least that I've noticed. This race car, however, is finally a way to give CHD awareness it's 15 second of fame on the racing circuit.
Here's the story..
The Chloe Duyck Memorial Fund, an organization created by Michelle Duyck and her family to create support and awareness for children like Chloe. Sadly, her daughter Chloe passed away due to complications from Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome at a very tiny age and this is how the birth of a wonderful organization began.
The Chloe Duyck Memorial Fund and Hope 4 Tiny Hearts joined forces with Kenny Wallace, the big time race car driver, to help spread CHD awareness and taking it a step further- creating a race car with images of their awesome organization as well as giving families like ours a chance to be a part of it. Michelle Duyck found a way for families to enter their child's name, in our case we were able to even enter Natalie's name (and I thought for sure I even missed the deadline) and if you see on the hood of the car, there are angel warrior and warrior names painted on it! Many of those names are even recognizable to me. Natalie's buddy Khloe is even included (Kristin's warrior). If you click on the photo of the names, you can see Natalie's name on the red part of the butterfly wing near the right side and Khloe's is near the left side over blue between the red and pink wings.
Doesn't that give you the chills??
This race car is racing on August 20th at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee! Boy I wish we had tickets! The website is also featuring t-shirts designed Racing Big Hope 4 Tiny Hearts and we were really lucky to be able to order a t-shirt for each kid and for Rick and I. I can't wait to get them! On the back, they also featured each name listed on the race car!

Again.. chills....
This is a huge start to hopefully something even bigger down the road. I am completely amazed by the hard work that Michelle, her family, her partners, and others than have donated their hearts, time, and money. Truly heroic and fantastic. =)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How amazing this that??? Wow, to know that there could actually be hope for you guys to be "exposed" to the public is a great big sigh of relief. Between all the misinterpreted CHD, and misunderstandings that stand between the known and "unknown" about it. That's awesome that it's come this far!

Dawn @ Bent, not broken said...

isn't it? you make a great statement too about it needing to be "exposed". I was reading a post today by a fellow blogger and CHD mom:http://whenlifehandsyouabrokenheart.blogspot.com/
and she said it too..that it's kind of like the medical community's "little dirty secret". It's so true!!

Stefenie said...

You and I both did a similar post today. Great minds think alike right?!

I too am thrilled about this car and glad that CHD is getting to take a spin around the race track. I am really hoping that a lot will be mentioned on the car and what it is for.

the nervous mom said...

Hey Stefenie!! you can say that again..LOL I began typing something up the night before.. barely got anywhere..and then woke up to see your post and once again, CHILLS! Is Logan's name on the car??
And yeah, I agree.. hopefully during the broadcast they say more about it. I know that this sounds so cliche, but it really proves to amaze me how hard work and dedication like that really does make a difference.
Michelle Duyck posted an awesome blog that I'm not sure you already read (if you do just ignore me..lol) and it's by her friend..the latest post is so touching:
http://deputydelirium.blogspot.com/