This story has so touched my heart I felt the need to share this with my readers.
As many of you know, I am new to the blogging community. I have come here, yes to tell some stories and make people laugh, but also to learn more about the community at large.
For those who do not know me, I am an over-volunteer (x10 actually). I am passionate about the causes that I support and spend more time in grassroots fundraising efforts than my spouse (aka, mr. is that billable?) would like. (Just kidding Gary is very supportive of my volunteer jones).
I am a regular reader of a wonderful blog called Design Mom, written by one of the more energetic individuals I have witnessed in a long time. Gabrielle Blair is the mother of 5 (OMG, I am such a slouch), a graphic designer and an entreprenuer.
Cut to the real story here. Through her blog I found out about a tragic plane crash involving another beloved mom of the blogosphere, Stephanie Aurora Clark Nielson. Her blog is Nie Nie Dialogues.
On Saturday, August 16, 2008, Stephanie was in a plane crash with her husband, Christian Nielson, and his flight instructor, Doug Kinnear, near St. Johns, Arizona. Doug Kinnear passed away soon after arriving at the Maricopa County Hospital.
Christian & Stephanie remain in critical condition at Maricopa Burn Center. Christian has sustained burns on over 30% of his body. His wife Stephanie’s body was burned over 80%. This wonderful couple has four young children.
I know, talk about Time to Cry Tuesday!
But here is the lemons to lemonade piece. This is what has reinforced the power of the blogosphere and more specifically, the mommy bloggers, for me. This is no group of passive women. These women rock. They rock so loud and so clear you can’t believe it.
Gabrielle from Design Mom had a brainstorm for bloggers to host online charity auctions to raise money for the Nielson’s recovery. Cjanerun, written by Stephanie’s sister has worked with others to create a donation site (which you can link to here, in my sidebar and on the graphic in this post – I want to make this easy!).
Yesterday, the NYT ran this amazing article about the fundraising efforts. After following this story for the past few weeks I felt it was time to bring this to you.
Talk about community!
So, my friends, never underestimate the power of community. Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in a zip code with this kind of support (which I am) know the result of this kind of support. These people pull us through, pick us up, dust us off and keep us going. How beautiful that we can apply this model globally through the power of blogging.
I urge you to donate whatever you can to this brave family.
i could cry but i don't have time 