Getty Owl Foundation

Our Most Sincere Thank You!

From Kate:

I want to start by apologizing in advance for the late posting about the Getty Owl Run/Walk. After Sunday was complete, I think I can speak for everyone on board, that we were pooped. 🙂 It is also amazing that all of the year long planning was for one day. Just doesn’t seem fair. 🙂 And in pure Kate fashion, once one thing ends another begins, so we are moving into another house this week. We have time right? 🙂

Before I even talk about the amazing day, I have to thank so many incredible people that helped make this happen.

I want to thank our board for giving us all you had that day and more. Getty Owl Foundation is and will always be a 100% volunteer foundation. There are certain times of the year when we put in very long hours to make an event something special and I just want to thank Stacey, Takoa, and Morgan for their love and their willingness to roll  up their sleeves and make a day memorable beyond belief. Thank you for your time and your passion.

Thank you to Chrissy and Sarita who have stepped in to add such richness to our fun little group. We appreciate your kind willingness to help us and we are so happy you are supporting us.

And if you were wondering what all of these lovely ladies look like I thought this picture fit quite nicely.It has been named, “the most awkward picture”, but in certain respects aren’t we all a little awkward. 🙂

Thank you to all of the hilarious helpers on packet pick-up days at Roseville Fleet Feet. I say hilarious because it has been a long time since I have really belly laughed and I seemed as though I  did two days straight with our weekend gang. Thank you to the San Juan HS ladies for all of your help and trouble we got into. Trina, Eileen, Mitzi and Shannon you gals do not disappoint and it was a pleasure to hang out with you all. We froze our butts off, but we did it in style. Thank you to Claudia and Denise. for hanging out and making Saturday a great day as well. I want to also thank trio of wonderful kiddos from Casa Robles  HS: Alex, Dani, Cameron.

Essential thank yous go to Rich and Kellie from Capital Road Race Management and Julie from Nor Cal Ultras. It was a pleasure working with you all and looking forward to next year.

Thank you to Kirk and the staff at Fleet Feet Roseville for hosting our packet pick-up. You were very accommodating and we really appreciate the support.

Thank you to all of the sponsors of the Getty Owl Run/Walk. Without your support, this day could never have happened, period! I am still in awe of the countless companies that stepped in to assist in so many different ways to make this day what it became, a huge success. We are a brand new foundation and for some companies, I know you were taking a big chance on us. My hope is that we have proven to you we can organize a successful family/community centered event. So thank you! Thank you!

I want to thank my husband for being daddy of the year for the past few weeks. Well let’s face it, Mark is awesome and he should get a medal for his support all year long, but for now I am giving him 1st place for the “ability to step in and help during the crazy last few weeks up till the race”. It has been crazy for all the right reasons and it was so comforting to know that he was right there help out with caring for Getty when I needed to make a phone call, write and email.

So you work all year long and then the day comes and you just have this moment of paralysis. “What if no one comes? What if too many people come? What if we forgot something? What if the beautiful weather instantly changes and everyone leaves?” I am sure I had crazy enough amounts of more thoughts like this, but once we got there and started unloading the truck and getting things done, it just kind turned into autopilot and we were rockin & rollin!

We had tons of post-race food, donated by Raley’s and Go Girl. We had the surprise giveaways of yummy owl decorated sugar cookies from the hands of San Juan HS FHA-HERO students. Kids, you do realize they will need to made again next year right? We received so much awesome feedback on the cookies to the point that adults said they were coming back for sure because of the cookies. 🙂

Our Post-race family festival was getting ready and people were still registering and then at one point I just kind of looked around and thought holy! We did this and this is really happening. Our goal of spreading awareness to a captive audience is coming true. It has been built and they are coming. At that point I went into focus mode. If I were to get through this day I needed a coping mechanism and that is my go to.

The kids race was first up and that couldn’t have been any cuter. Dinger from the Sacramento River Cats, several Disney Princesses and our own Hoot the Owl was there to run with the kids.

Grammy Linda, thank you again for the cute costume. I know the kids were so excited. We were as well, folks this is handmade. So cute!

Kids received their ribbons and then it as time to get to the main event. This race was such a community event, it was hard not to see someone you knew. Hugs were plentiful and catching up with so many people I had not seen in years was an awesome experience to the point I forgot that I needed to speak before the race began. Ooops!

I want to thank Sacramento City Councilmember Kevin McCarty for welcoming the crowd and saying some really nice words about our family and Getty Owl Foundation. Now the speaking turn came to me and I stepped up on the ladder to view an insane number of people. I told myself earlier that I was going to keep it short if I thought I was going to cry. I get all blubbering when that happens and that would stink for someone to hear that and then still have to run the race. 🙂 And then something really kind of weird happened. I really felt Getty’s presence with me, even though she was nestled in her bed at home with Mark.  I heard this teenage annoyed  like voice, “Mooooooom talk to them.”  And so I did. I thanked everyone for coming. I told them about SMA and how Getty was diagnosed at 4 months. I told them that 1 in 40 are carriers. most unknowingly.  I told them that is over 10 million Americans. I told them that it is as simple as blood test to determine for their generations to come. I told them that their is hope for our children. Then before I lost it, I thanked them for coming. It was very surreal to a) be  up there in front of the crowd and b) realize that for a moment over 850 people heard Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

The countdown started and they were off! If anyone has been an observer of a start of a race I think you know the feeling of adrenaline I might have been feeling. Pure adrenaline knowing that we had created this day for these people to run and walk. These people were lined up to sprint, jog, and walk the designated route along the Sacramento River. Such a feeling of accomplishment. Click here to check race results.

Post-Race Family Festival went great. There was food and hot drinks, smoothies by Jamba Juice, crafts, vendor booths, and people seemed to be having a great time. I want to thank all of the vendors for coming and supporting our event. It was nice to watch families finish the race together and then extend their day walking around the park.

We had our Getty Owl Foundation booth there as well to hand out information to people interested in learning more about SMA. Thanks to Frances and Chris for holding down the fort, while the rest of us were able to walk around and enjoy the day.

I want to thank all of the volunteers that came to support the event. Fraternities, sororities, Key Clubs and people with no affiliation came to lend a hand. Thank you so very much. You hard work was evident with how clean and organized everything was. We hope to work with you in the future.

This was a very special day. For any first time run I have heard that there is a level of uncertainty, especially knowing how many other races people could have gone to on this day. So to have over 850 registrations and making over $20,000 was mind boggling. We cannot even begin to explain how wonderful this makes us all feel.

We are just so thankful and humbled by the support and we are so excited to get planning on next years race. The 2nd Annual Getty Owl Run/Walk will happen and it will be even bigger and better next year.

So I thank you all for coming to our race. Thank you for giving us a platform to spread SMA awareness and in turn raise money for families affected by SMA and SMA research. We are beyond excited for what is to come for 2012. I think we already started off on the right foot. 🙂