Monday, October 18, 2010
What an amazing day for food allergy advocacy! The FAAN Chicago Walk was beautiful, bright, sunny and well-attended. Hooray! My husband wasn't feeling well but he attended anyway and started to feel better as the day went on. He's definitely a stand-up guy and he wanted to be there for our daughter. And, clearly, all the goodwill generated by this fabulous event had a healing effect!
We also brought my youngest daughter, Zoe--the best sister in the world to Alexandra--and Alexandra's close friend, Charlotte. Watching the girls enjoy themselves and get to enjoy the free samples of nut-free foods was truly awesome since partaking of food at events is usually off-limits.
The Chicago Walk was special for me personally because I got to meet up with some of my favorite food allergy advocates and supporters including local Chicagoans Kelly Rudnicki, allergy-friendly cookbook author of The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book and Food Allergy Mama blogger and Joyce Davis, founder of Chicago Cubs Fans for Peanut-Free Baseball. I have had the pleasure of meeting both of these wonderful food allergy moms before and it's always great to see them! In fact, that's Joyce and her family in the photo with me--taken by her sister, Cindy! I know Kelly got a photo of us together--it's on her site. Kelly, send me that one! :)
And then there were all the out-of-town people I had met via social networking but not yet in person. I chatted with the lovely and talented Cybele Pascal and she autographed her book for me: The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook. Cybele also served as the Celebrity Honorary Chair of the Chicago Walk and did a great job! I was also thrilled to meet Aly from AllerDine--such a nice woman!--and so dedicated to the cause that she lost her voice spreading her message. Visit her AllerDine site for reviews of allergy-friendly restaurants across the nation and add your own as well.
I also met Joel Warady, of the Joel Warady Group--a firm that handles awesome allergy-aware companies like Enjoy Life Foods and Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels. What a nice guy! And speaking of Kim & Scott's, not only did they hand out free pretzels at the event, but when I took my crew to Cafe Twist after the walk, I got to meet the fabulous Kim Holstein, co-founder of Kim & Scott's. I also saw Aly from AllerDine at Cafe Twist as well along with many other FAAN walkers in what turned out to be kind of a rowdy and pretzel-filled "after party."
So many generous donations helped me reach my $500 fundraising goal--I was so flattered to even receive a donation from the wonderful Gwen Smith, editor of Allergic Living magazine. Thanks to ALL who donated--you really made a difference and I am so appreciative of your support.
I really can't say enough about how wonderful it was to meet all of these inspiring allergy advocates in one place, in person. Just being around so many families dealing with the same things that we do each day was also really heartening for me and my family.
Supporting FAAN is important to me because of their role in food allergy advocacy and education. I hope you'll visit their site for more info if you are not familiar with them. They truly make a difference.
Thanks to everyone who either attended, donated or help make the Walk happen. Hope to see you next year!