Getty Owl Foundation

Getty Owl Foundation Website, Going Live Tuesday!

From Kate & Mark:

We are proud to announce the official Getty Owl Foundation website will be going live this Tuesday, September 20. We are so very excited to show you what we have created.

With the help of our friendly bees at Honey Agency, we have created a website with some really good content. We would also like to thank Sam Bonsett at Bonstar HTS for hosting our website. We would also like to thank our GOF Board for being the glue that keeps our foundation together. Or another metaphor that would work is you are the ores to our canoe. 🙂 We thank you all for your time and support.

So let me tell you all about it.

We wanted to create a simple design that was easy to navigate. Our hope is that it is user-friendly and everyone can find their way through with little confusion.

There is information about our family, about little Miss Getty, who is not so little anymore, almost 18 months :), and our mission as a foundation.

We have a section carved out just for SMA education. We provide some tools for visitors to learn about the #1 genetic killer of young children.

There have been some common questions that have come up since Getty’s diagnosis, so we grouped them into a section of FAQs; we hope you find that helpful. We have information on carrier testing, supportive information for the newly diagnosed, and an SMA Library to provide our visitors with some deeper knowledge of SMA.

We created an events section so people who would like to participate can be informed on how to raise SMA awareness and help us accelerate SMA research. We also show past events to give people examples of the kinds of things the foundation has done to fight SMA.

There is a place for you to shop, read articles, view pictures, participate, sign up for our Getty Owl Run/Walk coming in February, and read the Getty Owl blog.

Of course, our blog is NOT going anywhere … are you kidding? 🙂 I (Kate) would go crazy if that went away. The Getty Owl blog will be housed on the foundation website. You can still read and comment about our  journey. If you have subscribed to the blog in past, you will still get those updates.

We would love your feedback. So after Tuesday, perhaps you can come back to this blog post and let us know what you think.

We like to think of the website as a living document, so it will always be updated and tweaked as we move along.

Please join us for the official website launch on Tuesday, September 20!

We thank you all in advance for your support. We certainly wouldn’t be in this position if we didn’t know that people were reading, listening, and participating. We are only one family, but this family is focused and passionate to end this horrible disease for not only Getty but for all children that have been diagnosed and will continue to be without a cure. Our mission is clear and our momentum is building.

Getty Owl wins 2011 Most Valuable Blogger Award from Sacramento CBS13!

Getty Owl is the winner of the 2011 Most Valuable Blogger award from Sacramento CBS13!

Getty Owl won as the People’s Choice thanks to all of your votes and support. Thank you to all who voted and helped spread the word!

Getty Owl was also selected as the Editor’s Choice! Thank you, CBS13!

We are elated to see SMA awareness raised in Sacramento and beyond. 🙂

Tell 5! Winner

From Kate:

I know I am late. 🙂 Alright so I wanted to thank everyone again for asking to Tell 5! the entire month of August. It was so much fun to mail our packets and then when more and more people asked, I started to really get excited about all the awareness that was happening. Thank you all for taking the challenge and perhaps next August I will think of something else catchy to get the word out about SMA.

We had some really pictures sent us and some great stories. I will post the pictures now and then at the bottom I will announce the winner of the Tell 5! Giveaway……………..

……………the winner of the $50 Visa giftcard and a CD of Sweet water Child, Lullabies for Getty was chosen by random.com is………..Angel G!

Thank you Angel for participating and I hope you enjoy both gifts. 🙂

Pregnancy & Newborn

From Kate:

A fellow SMA mother made me aware of this quick article in the September 2011 edition of Pregnancy & Newborn. Thank you Allison!

It is a quick “shout out” for Sweet Water Child, Lullabies for Getty. How cool is that? Have you bought your copy? Yes, well thank you. No, well that is easy to fix. 🙂 Click here to download. Hugs and Kisses to Alex and Angela for their talent and love in making this beautiful album a reality.

Here is a quick picture, again furnished by Allison. 🙂 Thanks for looking out for us.

Back in April, Pregnancy & Newborn sampled one of the Lullabies songs for their online April slideshow. Check it out!

Taming the Shrew! One Night Only! To Benefit Getty Owl Foundation

From Kate:

This Thursday night at my beloved San Juan High School, Shakespeare’s Taming the Shrew will be playing for ONE NIGHT ONLY.

Cindy Davis, an amazing math teacher at SJHS that I have had the pleasure of working with for the past 10 years, is in the role of Kate.

Having just concluded their successful run at Carvalho Winery, the cast is back to do one more very special performance for the public with some proceeds going to Getty Owl Foundation.

Here is a recent online review of the play,

“While all the leading roles were done well,  and because Delta News and Review is an online publication that our readers like their news abbreviated, I cannot review all the roles. Cynthia Davis was an excellent “Kate” as her leading man Mark Cornfield “Petruchio” commanded the stage as well as I have seen for that role before.
Kieth Letl as Petruccio’s servant provided hysterical physical comedic relief and that’s saying something  in a comedy!
But Amelia Silbert-Geiger as “Bianca” caught my attention with a special dramatic passion her role was able to give her the room to work with both the drama and comedy together. She was in “the Zone.” I could tell that she was totally immersed into the spirit of Will and his character Bianca. Her facial expressions were connected to the passion and while seeming naturally comfortable and relaxed, her intensity and grasp of response to her line cues and stage direction was first rate and she sold it like a pro, and I hope to see her do another role outside of Shakespeare even though she wears it so well.”

So perhaps that convinced you that this is a play to come see THIS Thursday!

Here are the details:

Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew

San Juan High School’s Auditorium  7551 Greenback Lane, Citrus Heights, 95610

Thursday September 8th—ONE NIGHT ONLY!!!!

Starts at 7:00-9:30pm

$10 Adults; $5 Student/Seniors, tickets are sold at the door.

If you would like more details, please check out their facebook event page here.

We hope you can come to this very special night. We thank the cast for their support of our fight against SMA. We appreciate your generosity.