Bragging Rights

As a Mom I get Bragging Rights every now and then. It's a Mom's Privilege. Middle Child has completed the Project part of his Eagle Project. I wrote a week ago about how he was putting together a campaign to heighten people's awareness of Organ Donation and hopefully sign some more people to become Organ Donors.

He has worked so hard on this I was absolutely amazed! I wasn't sure he was anyone's teenage son. He called numerous places to ask permission to set up booths on June 4th. He even had to call a few Corporate Offices to get the Go Ahead. After that he had to call people to staff the booths. He easily spent 10-15 hours on the phone calling people. That plus he hunted down neighbors who he couldn't reach by phone. He was like a Tiger!

We also had to put together some sort of Display. We ended up making these to put at each booth.

That Saturday morning Middle Child and Olaf left the house soon after 6:30am to get the Gold's Gym booth set up since it started at 7am. Thank goodness the other booths didn't open until 10am.

Here's what one of the booths looked like.

We incorporated some of the Zero Fatalities things into the booth in an effort to get a few more people to buckle up also.

Here's one of the Gold's Gym groups.

Here's the Gold's Gym in Provo. These two are coworkers of Olaf's who were more than happy to take the whole 4-hour shift!

Here are a few of his friends at Fresh Markets.

Here's more of Olaf's coworker's at CAL Ranch.

Here's the Family helping at Macey's, not the Department Store but the Grocery store.

They sure are cute!

Here's Middle Child working the booth at CAL Ranch later in the day.

Here are some of Middle Child's friends who also worked a 4-hour shift at Macey's. He's got awesome friends willing to help out all Saturday afternoon!

Here's one of Calvin's friends with his Mom.

And Middle Child is working the Fresh Market booth with Calvin's favorite Scout Leader.

Here's another of Calvin's friend helping out that afternoon after a long day at work.

I was amazed at how gung-ho Middle Child has been about his project. We had to help him write things out but he had absolutely no problem calling people and stores. And once he got there he was aggressive in talking to people and signing them up to be Organ Donors. There aren't enough words in my vocabulary to tell you how proud I am of my son. He's just incredible.

I Want You!

One of the first things we decided after Calvin died was that we would not live in grief but that we would celebrate his life. We decided that we would not let grief ruin our lives. As part of celebrating his life when we came upon new events we would use "What Would Calvin Do?" as our guide. When minutes after they told us Calvin had not survived and asked us to consider organ donation we both thought it was a good idea and both said "Calvin would want to continue to help others."

A couple years later Middle Child has started working on his Eagle Project. He decided long ago he wanted to do something about organ donation. He has finally put together his project. He wants to educate people about organ donation and hopefully sign people up to be organ donors.

This Saturday, June 4, he is setting up booths around town. He needs your help to staff those booths throughout the day. If you can help email him at eagle.proj@gmail.com. He would really appreciate any help you can offer. And don't forget, "What Would Calvin Do?" 

The Donor Wall Ceremony

Early this year I submitted Calvin's name to be put on the Celebration of Life Monument in Salt Lake City. This last Saturday was the unveiling ceremony.

There were a lot of people there, the biggest crowd they've had yet.

The had a harpist playing beautiful music. It was a nice day although quite windy, check out her hair.

We got there early because I didn't know where to park and wanted to make sure we had time to walk in case we had to hike a few blocks.

So the kids had time to lay in the shade in the grass before it all started.

Baby brought Froggy, I think he needed a little extra support this day.

Here's Middle Child leaning on the wall, patiently waiting to see Calvin's name. It was so busy we left, ate lunch, and came back later to get pictures.

Like I said it was a warm day so the kids played in the fountain when we came back.

Middle Child and Cousin T were playing just a little in the water.

Baby had to get soaked. It's just his style.

I had never seen the Donor Memorial before. I thought it was really neat looking. There are a lot of names etched on the surface.

A friend of our's donated a kidney to her brother last year. We got a picture of her name too.

Then we finally got a decent picture of Calvin's name. While the monument is beautiful it's hard to get pictures.

It was really neat to see his name in print, honoring his donation. It'll be there whenever anyone wants to come and see it.


And we even managed to get on TV again, without even trying and without our knowledge. Someone else pointed it out to us. Check around the 30 second mark.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com