So as I sat in traffic Tuesday on the way downtown to the Man in a Box event, I had a lot of time to think and most importantly, to listen. And what I was hearing on 100.7 Star was wonderful, amazing, and made me so very proud to be a part of.

For those of you that haven’t been hearing me talk about this for the past 4 months or so, let me give you a little background. Spring 2013, the Salvation Army came to me and asked if any of our jocks would be interested in participating in their Most Amazing Race event. So after talking to some of our jocks, Monty and Flick were both willing to participate and also help me by finding partners to run with. I love them both for this and to be honest, I considered trying to talk Dan into participating as well. However, having a six month old at the time who was not always the happiest of campers, I was having a hard time leaving during the week, let alone for an entire day on the weekend. So I decided maybe we should wait until another year.

Monty and Flick both did great and seemed to enjoy the race except for getting soaking wet. Sometime between that event and when Flick came to me a few weeks later, the start of something big had begun with Flick and Donna from the Salvation Army. We went back and forth and back and forth for months trying to pick dates, locations, names and how even the structure would look and be built. And I mean back and forth. Many meetings, emails, and phone calls. And in that time, Donna, myself and our sales staff tried to find corporate underwriters as well. It was a process, and Tuesday morning bright and early, that “process” and all of our hard work came to fruition. I was like a little kid Monday night. I hadn’t slept well in a few nights because Maddy is teething, but still I couldn’t fall asleep. And I got up early on Tuesday…and I’m not a morning person. AT ALL. I wanted to be down there Tuesday and had only planned on staying for a bit, but instead found myself not wanting to leave. It was cold. I was dressed to go into the office, not to be in the cold, but I couldn’t get myself to leave. Thankfully I was able to keep up with work via my phone, and was able to stay down there a good part of the day. As I sit in my warm house on my couch in my pjs, I still can’t seem to get warm, but I have a house…and a couch…and a furnace to keep me warm. The people that the Salvation Army help don’t, and that is why we all pulled together for this event.

The work that the Salvation Army does is amazing and I am so appreciative to Flick for helping bring awareness to this organization and the good it does in our community.

This blog post isn’t another one of my pleas for donations, however donations are greatly appreciated (and you can donate here… https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org/westernpennsylvania/man-in-a-box )! This is just a post to say thank you. Thank you to my family for their support both emotionally when I was stressed, and for their help in other ways (I talked my dad into ringing the bell for 3 hours in this weather, and my husband into the use of his photography for not just the sales proposal, but the website and to take a few pics for Whirl Magazine as well), my friends at work for listening as we jumped over the hurdles and obstacles along the way, for my clients (and by clients I mean the clients that I work with, who have also become my friends over the years or who were my friends before they were my clients as well) who supported this promotion, my friends at the Salvation Army, and to Flick because without him, there would be no Man in a Box. Literally.