Getty Owl Foundation

Thank You SMA Families & Friends!

From Kate:

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the SMA families and friends that offered to donate art pieces and silent auction gifts for not only our online auction, but our 2nd Annual Hoot the Grid. I love this time of year because we get to raise awareness more, since it is National Awareness month. We get to show our community that SMA has a name, a face, and that we are no different to anyone else in this world.

I was approached by a woman the other day that asked about SMA, to which I was thrilled. While we are in conversation she told me that she couldn’t be a carrier. She had a beautiful, non-SMA kiddo so that meant that she was not a carrier. Ahhh, what a teachable moment I thought to myself. I basically told her this, without the visual.

She paused a moment and then thanked me for putting it such easy terms. Then she said, “well if I get tested, I could have any kind of SMA, aren’t there like tons of mutations?” To which I did another fist pump of happiness and I told her, “no”. “you either have the SMA carrier gene or you don’t”. “It is that simple?” she said. And I said, “yes”.

Folks, this is why we do what we do. This is why we do events online and in our community. If we can reach one more person in the very least , to learn about SMA, we are satisfied. My hope is that the mom I spoke to will go and tell someone else and then that person tells someone else, etc.

So thank you to all the families and friends that helped make these events possible. I was asked that very same question, several times online during the auction as well as at our event here in Sacramento. One person at a time.

Thank you to:

Miss Stephanie Tomasegovich

Mr. Jeffery Lorenzen

The Goeppert Family & Nana Teri

Miss Morgan Saunders

Kaige’s Uncle Ryan and Sister, Paris

The McClain Family

The Kennedy Family

The Miller Family

The Sniezek Family

The Burks Family

The Calafiore Family

The Lohin Family

The Bundy Family

The Gooden Family

The Barnett Family

The Poluchowicz Family

The Pruitt Family

Mr. Ivan Pretorius

Miss MJ Purk

The Bonelli Family

The Shifflett Family

The Reed Family

The Engle Family

The Lorey Family

The Reed Family

The Gardner Family

Stacey Ball

Miss Getty Spaghetti

Thank you all for helping us make this event a reality two years in a row. We are ever so grateful and we appreciate the time and effort you all made to help us educate not only our community, but anyone that reads our blog.

I am still crunching the numbers. I will update on how much we were able to raise in a bit.