Uncork A Cure!

Help us generate additional fundraising dollars to continue funding CF research. Sal's Pals was chosen as a member of a newly established program offered through The Andersons. Go to any of the four local Anderson's retail stores - Maumee, Toledo/Talmadge Rd., Woodville, or the Sylvania Food Market, and purchase Sal's Pals wine for $9.99 per bottle. There are four varietals available - Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and White Zinfandel. Sal's Pals will earn $2.00 for every bottle sold. This makes a great gift for the holidays, and gives you a chance to support Sal's Pals in a special way. Cheers!

Fall Update

The Wine Tasting was a big hit! Our food definitely was a crowd pleaser! Chuck Metz, who we met from a family friend, donated and prepared the majority of the food. This kind of donation allows for us to be able to cut down on our expenses and donate more money to CF. I know Chuck and his wife Birdie hate thank-yous but these acts of generosity are what make Sal's Pals what it is today. So from the bottom of my heart...THANK-YOU!!!! Sal's Aunt Nikki, my best friend, motivator and ridiculously passionate sister is the other driving force behind the Wine Tasting. Nikki chairs the event and handles everything from tickets to sponsors and everything in between. Without Nikki's efforts there would be no wine tasting. So thanks Nik for making your vision a reality! I can't forget all of our friends who get all the people there, volunteer their time and stay late to celebrate, You Guys Rock!

On another note I recently went to this beauty seminar. I dragged Nikki there with me so we could get some deals on products. We were there to get discounts on the products I love but the seminar was about becoming representatives to sell their products. The woman shared with us how she left her career as a teacher and has never been happier, making her dreams come true as a beauty rep. After sharing with us, she had some questions, "Do you feel like you could be doing more for your life?" "Do you feel like you could be happier doing something else?" "Do you feel rewarded in life by the things that you do?" Pretty deep for a beauty seminar. But I think the message was trying to get you to think about being beautiful from the inside out. As I sat there listening to the woman ask these questions I was shocked how many women in the room were unhappy with their lives. As I sat and reflected on my own thoughts on the matter I realized how happy I am with my life. So often we get caught up with the things that we want to do, that we forget what is right in front of us. A great quote that I saw recently said,"Live life how you imagined." I always imagined that I would get married and have a family, though, I never imagined that I would have a child with a terminal illness; what I did imagine was that I would be a part of something bigger than myself. I just never imagined it would be for cystic fibrosis. When Sal was first diagnosed I had mixed feelings about how I would handle the situation... Do we tell everyone... do we talk about it? Rick and I had talked about having a big family but after Sal we knew that we couldn't imagine having another child with CF. I knew how badly Rick wanted more children and he never talked much about Sal's diagnosis. One day I finally told Rick that if he wanted to leave I would understand. I loved him so much that I wanted to make sure that he would be happy. Rick looked at me completely shocked and asked if I was crazy? I explained that I wasn't crazy but that this was going to be our life and it wasn't going to always be easy and it was important to me that he was always happy. From that day on, I knew that we needed to do something to make a difference because we would never forgive ourselves if we didn't. Our life may be crazy but I am living it the way I imagined...and couldn't be happier!

Sal had his appointment this week and is still doing AWESOME! Keep your fingers crossed as we approach cold and flu season! We have our H1N1 and flu vaccines so we are ready!

One last thing. Since I am having such a difficult time posting on a regular basis (I finish school in Dec!) I thought it would be cool to have a guest writer. So I will have different committee members give some insight into what Sal's Pals means to them and anything they would like to add about fighting CF!

Turn up your volume we have new songs!

Wine Tasting

Tickets are now available for the 3rd Annual Uncork a Cure Event. Tickets are $40 each which includes food and wine. The event will be held at Stone Oak Country Club on October 2nd from 7pm to 10pm. Come help us Uncork a Cure for CF! You can contact me @ salspals2004@yahoo.com for tickets.

Little Kid's Carnival

Sal's little cousin Annie (age 4) came up to me out of the blue one day and said, " Aunt Jenny I want to do a fumraiser for Sal." (I didn't misspell fundraiser that's what she called it.) I couldn't decide if I wanted to laugh or cry. I thought to myself, how in the world does a 4 year old come up with a fundraiser. Do we talk about Sal's Pals so much that our kids have it embedded in their brains? Annie answered that question for me, "Aunt Jenny, I don't want Sal to be sick anymore so you can take the money and give it to his doctor so he doesn't have CF."
I picked little Annie up and squeezed her tightly. You see Annie gets it. For years I would get so frustrated with others. I would see all of my family and friends or even strangers whom I'd never met trying to make a difference in the lives of those with CF. Yet some people closest to the disease do nothing. I had a CF mom come up to me at an event once and said, "My son has had CF for 32 years and I have never once thought about raising money for others with CF." I almost fell over. I wasn't even sure how to respond. Then I politely said, "I couldn't live with myself if anything ever happened to Sal and we didn't do everything in our power to help him." I notice the woman had tears in her eyes and she just said, "thank-you".
That's what this is all about - people helping people. Even the littlest of people can inspire others! Thanks Annie!

With summer ending quickly, I'm proud I managed to pull out a post for the month of August! Sal's pals have been very busy the last couple of weeks. We had the first ever Brother's in Blue Charity Bike Run. Our crowd was small but mighty! The roar of the bikes when they took off was pretty cool! Many of the bikers in attendance had never attended a Sal's Pals Event. We were able to generate awareness to a whole new group of future Sal's Pals! Once the bikers came back we began round two with a cornhole tournament. A band serenaded all of us as we watched as Ron and Jeremy win the first ever Sal's Pals Cornhole Tourny!
Yesterday proved to be a beautiful day for the 6th Annual Golf Outing. We had 34 teams out at Fallen Timbers. I'm proud to say that we had more women golfers this year than ever before. I spent most of my day at the 16th hole and more men than women hit the water...way to go ladies! Sal had a blast at his hole with my Dad. He called Rick every time someone used his shot, he was so excited! We also had a lot of gimmick holes this year. You either love them or you hate them! We get mixed reviews every year but the general consensus is that people enjoy them. The point of the golf outing is to have FUN and raise awareness and in looking at the golfers faces I think we accomplished both. Thanks to all the volunteers for your continued support. I feel like I am constantly thanking the same individuals, I hope all of you really do realize that Rick and I could not accomplish any of these events if it wasn't for your unfailing love, support and generosity.

Upcoming Events

July 18th
Bring the whole fam to Annie Bazzoli's Little Kid Carnival
August 22nd
First ever Brothers in Blue Motorcycle Ride and After Party @ IBEW Pavillion. After the ride there will be a live band and food.
August 30th
Sal's Pals Golf Outing @ Fallen Timbers
email us for more info at salspals2004@yahoo.com

Dance For Chance

Back around Christmas time my neighbor, 15 year old Katie asked if I would be willing to come to her freshman health class to help her and a friend do a presentation on CF. The girls did a great job and I was really surprised at how attentive the students were. I did not have my side kick there with me that day (Sal was at school). The kids always love to listen to Sal, especially the girls, he defiantly always seems to know just what to say to them. Katie's older brother Matt also attends Southview High School and has always been very involved with a group called Dance for Chance. The Dance for Chance is an event in itself. Kids from the high school participate by creating teams. In order to participate the kids must raise money for charities that the kids vote on. This year my two neighbor cuties nominated Sal's Pals as one of the recipient charities and we won! Now there is a bit of irony surrounding this situation. Sal's older sister Olivia attends the rival school in town, Northview. Sal also happens to be the ball boy for the Northview girl's basketball team. And can you guess who the teacher was that was leading the event... the Girl's assistant Varsity Basketball Coach! However, on this day, were all part of one community coming together. Matt let Sal be part of his "Green Team" and every hour he did the dance and stayed on his feet as the kids were not allowed to sit from noon until midnight. Throughout the day the kids had activities from basketball, to Jenga, to name that tune. For each activity the teams were scored and whoever had the most points at the end of the day got bragging rights for the rest of the year. The students raised over $21,000 for 3 area charities. At the end of the night the students presented Sal with a check. To those teachers, especially Steve Swaggerty, who inspire our youth each and every day to be better citizens and responsible, caring people the world needs more of you! To Katie and Matt, thanks for being such wonderful thoughtful neighbors and for realizing that you can make a difference and of course for putting a great big smile on Sal's face!

7th Annual Sal's Pals Charity Event

Well I feel absolutely terrible! 6 months have gone by and I have failed miserably at my New Year's resolution! The good news is that I did get A's in each of 8 classes that I took over the last 6 months. I have been a little busy, but no excuses. I have a lot of catching up to do and lots of new events to spread the word on!
First things first.... Sal's Pals 7th Annual Dinner proved to be another spectacular night. Given the economy we were all a little worried as to how our attendance and profits would go. $90,000 later we got our answer. Many events across the country had been canceled due to the economy, but our event actually grew. We were able to reach out to many new faces and those new faces branch out and it just keeps going strong. A big thanks to our volunteer of the year Maria Jiannuzzi, and the sponsor of the year UPS. Both are pictured above, this year would not have been as successful without their continued support!
One memory that sticks out in my mind from this year's event happened during the Bid For a Cure Speech. Rick and Sal started the bidding off at one-thousand dollars. Never in a millions years did I think that we would get a 1000 dollar sponsor, but we had to start somewhere. Just as I was glancing over at Rick to start moving things along, I saw Rick's eyes light up and yell out, "Thank you, thank you so much!" Sal jumped up and down on the stage and Rick nearly forgot he needed to keep going, I started to pan the room to find out who this mystery bidder could be and then I spotted her as she was writing out the check. As I got closer to the table I saw my good friend Bree walking from the table with tears coming down her face. The mystery bidder happened to be Tricia Schweer. Tricia is the mother of 3 year-old Briahna Schweer. Briahna was diagnosed with a very rare mass that was invading her chest cavity involving her heart and lungs. Her recent surgery was extremely life threatening, but to not have the surgery had an even worse prognosis. Briahna's family and friends put together a benefit to try and help raise money to offset the family's medical expenses during their very difficult time. Many of the Sal's Pals committee members helped the family to organize the event, sell tickets and even work. Rick and I attended the event and I remember the family thanking us, Sal's Pals, for all of our help. I felt that my help was so trivial in the whole grand scheme of things but Rick leaned over to me and whispered, its not what we have done, it's what we have helped to create. Looking around the room we had at least 10 of our committee members there supporting the event. None of them knew Brianna or her parents but they knew how to run a charity event. I have never been so proud of my friends and family as I was that night.
As for Briahna, she was able to finally have surgery and is recovering. Last I heard she was doing remarkably well. As for Sal's Pals, we were able to reach out and help another family in the same way that the community has reached out and helped us. As for the Schweer family their strength and generosity is a constant reminder of what charity work is all about!

Sal's Pals goes to school

Well it has been longer than 10 days but I think that I am getting better at the updates. Last Friday Sal and I got to meet up with our good friend Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor is the principal at Eagle Point Elementary School in Rossford, Ohio. Before a school assembly we started our day visiting different classrooms and giving the students a chance to meet Sal. Many of them had questions ready to ask, the most popular question they had was, "How has CF changed your life?" Sal was unsure how to answer this question. He looked up at me, confusion in his eyes, then assertively he exclaimed, "It hasn't!" I smiled at his reply but I could tell the kids were puzzled. I went on to explain to the kids that Sal was born with CF. Some of the little ones wanted to know if you could catch CF, Sal was quick to explain to them that you could not. I explained how Sal got the disease and the kids were much more relaxed. The presentation went really well. Students watched the dvd Bill Nie The Science Guy on CF. The video does a great job explaining the disease in a fun way. Sal then showed them what it is like for him to do his vest and his airway clearance device. Afterwards, the students answered questions about CF and won CF bears and bracelets for their participation. The assembly kicked off a penny race that the school will have in order to raise money for our Great Strides team. Rossford students will come to The Great Strides Walk on Saturday, May 2nd and present the money they raise while supporting the walk.
Some of these kids may never encounter anyone with CF again, some won't remember next week what CF is; however, in taking the time to visit schools we are raising awareness and educating students. This provides the opportunity for them to not only raise funds but to get involved in their community. Sal enabled the kids to put a face to CF and I firmly believe that is what they will remember. When Sal and I walked into the classrooms they were so excited to meet him and anxious to find out more about him. Seeing my 7-year-old son explain his terrible disease to his peers so effortlessly, not once realizing how different his life truly is just means we are doing something right. My goal for Sal is to never treat him differently, to make sure that he understands this is his life and CF is a part of it. By going out and raising awareness we can only hope that somehow it will lead to something positive. I don't think that Jeff Taylor realizes how unique and special he is. How grateful we are that he provides this opportunity for us and how much he means to Sal. Jeff was my sister Nikki's boss several years ago. She only knew him a short time when she asked if he would support a school wide fundraiser for CF. She told Jeff our story and without a second thought he was eager to help. 3 schools, and years later Mr. Taylor is almost an expert on CF, Sal absolutely idealizes him and he is an inspiration to me. When people go out of their way to help for no other reason than out of sheer kindness I am always moved. Jeff Taylor is one of those people. Thanks Jeff for your continued enthusiasm, support and inspiration!

New Year's Wristband

This year one of my New Year's resolutions is to make sure that I update this blog every 10 days. We will see how I do! During this holiday season I felt extremely blessed. We continue to be blessed with the most amazing friends and family. Recently, we were out with some friends and I couldn't help but notice that everyone sitting with us had on an orange "Fight CF" bracelet. The bracelets are extremely hard to miss, not to mention extremely hard to match with an outfit! Yet everyone had their bright orange bracelet on. The wristbands are meant to show your support for a cause and help create awareness.  Each time I see someone wearing the CF bracelet it means that someone else thought about CF that day. Someone that doesn't necessarily have to, but they do it because they care. I did not mention that I noticed everyone sporting the wristband, but the fact that they wear their bracelets so proudly means the world to me.  So in honor of the "Spirit of the Wristbands" we will have a column on our blog site that will show you where Sal's Pals is now. Rick's cousin Dave has been traveling around the country with his wristband taking pictures at his different destinations. Dave thought it would be a great idea to post the pictures of where the wristband has been. So if you are somewhere and your sportin' your wristband, hold it up high, snap a photo and send it on to me!

Sal's Letter

I have often wondered how Sal feels about all of the fundraising that we do. Fundraising is all he has ever known. Since he was 18-months-old he has watched others around him work for Sals Pals. Don't get me wrong we do not eat, breath and sleep fundraisers although some weeks it does feel that way. Our family works and plays like anyone else.

Two years ago we attended a fundraiser and I got up in front of the audience with Sal to tell our CF story. Sal had never actually gone up on stage with me before. As I started to explain my connection with CF to the audience; before I could even introduce him, Sal was proudly waiving his hand up in the air exclaiming, "Hi I'm Sal, I am the one who has CF." So now that we have established to the chuckling crowd who Sal is, I continued on with my speech. I practiced this speech a hundred times but never had Sal been at my side. As Sal looked up at me, listening so intently, my heart just sank. Here I was standing up on stage pleading with these people about why we desperately need money for CF. For the first time I could feel it - I knew that Sal knew why it was so important to raise money. As I was trying to finish, tears streamed down my face. Out of the corner of my eye I could see tears running down Sals face too. He very gently grabbed my hand so I could finish. After the speech I knelt down beside him and hugged him. When we stood up our audience was on their feet. I think the audience felt the impact of what they had just witnessed. On the car ride home that night I asked Sal what he thought of my speech. He quickly responded, "I think you really need me up there mom." His smile was contagious and Rick and I couldn't help but laugh.

When Rick and I decided that we wanted to raise money for CF, we did it because we knew that if anything ever happened to Sal and we did not try and do everyhting in our power to help him, we knew we could never forgive ourselves. Sal is energetic and happy. When I look at Sal I am constantly reminded of how precious life truly is and why it is so important that we make a difference for all those living with CF. This year after the wine tasting Sal wrote this letter. I wanted to share it because it's Sal's point of view. Reading his words about CF make all of those sleepless nights we have getting things ready for events all worth it. "Dollars buy science and science buys life for those afflicted with cystic fibrosis." He also drew the B.P. gas truck. B.P. has been one of our largest corporate sponsors over the years, so I guess Sal thinks he can drive one!

Meet Sal

Flu Shot

Last week we went into Cleveland for Sal's CF appointment. Generally our appointments are pretty boring. In this instance boring is always good because it means he is healthy. Sal weighed in at 59.6 pounds at this visit. Sal and I have had a bet going for a few months- I promised him once he weighed 60 pounds, he could pick out any restaurant for dinner. After the appointment we rounded up and took the fam to Olive Garden. Sal was so excited because we let him order off the adult menu. Our little seafood lover was in heaven with his seafood pasta! Our day would not have been complete without a little drama though... While we were at our appointment we thought it would be a good idea to get Sal his flu shot. Pretty routine-you would think, but we forgot to tell one person about our plans- Sal. He totally freaked out. Sal has always been great about doing whatever the doctor asks him and takes his meds like a champ. Whenever he needs blood work drawn, shots, or any type of invasive procedure we have not had a problem as long as we explain exactly what it is that he has to have done. You would have thought in the 2 hour drive to the appointment I would have remembered to tell him about the flu shot, but for whatever reason I forgot and he completely freaked out. We tried to rationalize with him why he needed to get the flu shot and he was fine with the rationale, but was just not going to get it that day. He wanted to go to his pediatrician the following week. After much discussion, we got nowhere; his mind was made up, he was just going to get it later. We even tried bribing him with Dave and Busters. When that didn't sway his mind, we knew his mind was made up. He tried to rationalize with us that he wouldn't catch the flu before next week. 20 minutes later we were still having the same discussion with our 7 year old. As much as it broke my heart that I forgot to remind him and caused him such anguish, I couldn't risk taking him to the pediatrician and exposing him to other patients there for sick visits. With Rick standing on one side and me on the other, we got the dreaded flu shot. Sal kind of stood there for a second, a little shocked that it was all over-and even more shocked I think that it wasn't that bad. But worse yet, he felt embarrassed of how he had acted in front of everyone. When he came out of his room a girl that was in the room next door, who couldn't have been more than 4-years-old, held up her arm in Sal's direction hoping to ease him and show him somebody was going through the same thing, she had an IV in. I'm sure the little girl wanted to make sure Sal was OK after the way that he had carried on. I think that's when Sal realized the flu shot wasn't so bad because he remembered when he had an IV last year. Funny how kids relate to things.
Well everyone here is healthy and we all have our flu shots. If anyone is nervous about getting one I'm sure Sal could talk you through!

Our 2nd event

New Blog Spot

After much discussion, we have decided to post a blog spot so we can keep everyone informed about Sal's Pals. Sal's Pals was created by family and friends in 2001 for a very special little guy named Sal. Sal was diagnosed with a genetic disease called cystic fibrosis at birth. Currently, there is no cure for CF and the life expectancy is 37 years. My husband Rick and I were terrified for our son's future and decided that we needed to find a way to help. We recruited family and friends to help us raise money so that we could give back to an organization that was helping our family, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We decided to hold an annual fundraising dinner with 100% of the proceeds going to the foundation. Our committee got everything from auction items to the venue donated, keeping our costs at just a few hundred dollars! That first year we raised $32,000 and had a sell-out crowd of 350 people. Over the past six years our event has grown to 500 guests, pushing the half million dollar mark! Aside from the dollars that we are able to raise there is another component that I feel keeps bringing people back to our events, when you attend the event, that is when you will truly understand how magical it is. For me when I have others who are giving up time from their own families to help mine it is an unexplainable feeling. We are so fortunate to have such passionate volunteers and I think that is were it becomes magical for me. When I look around the room at the sea of people in attendance it stops me in my tracks to be in the company of so many generous people. Of course when most people meet Sal he is lighting up the room and they can't help but love him!
Sal's Pals hosts several other events throughout the year including; a wine tasting and several golf outings.
This new blog site will be able to keep people informed of upcoming events, as well as other events going on in the area. We will also be update the blog on Sal's happenings and how he is doing. With Sal now in second grade I think he can even update himself!