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www.briansblog.believeintomorrow.org

Being Thankful

At the Believe In Tomorrow Children's Foundation we have so much to be thankful for during this Thanksgiving holiday season. Our pediatric hospital housing serving the Johns Hopkins Children's Center has operated at full capacity all year, and I am thankful for our wonderful staff and volunteers who make those facilities such a welcoming place for some very sick children. Our Believe In Tomorrow respite housing services have also operated at a very high capacity and provided hundreds of critically ill children and their families from throughout the United States with magical moments of peace and relaxation throughout the year. This would never have been possible without the support of thousands of volunteers and donors who believe in our mission, and for this , we are very thankful. We are thankful to our Hands On Adventure partners in the bull riding, race car driving and airship flying sports. Their efforts have helped thousands of children believe in tomorrow by planting the seeds of hope wherever they go.

Although it has been a tough and difficult year with the economy, you cannot feel anything but optimistic and blessed when you are surrounded by so many people who believe in our mission of helping children and families in need........and for that I am the most thankful.

Wishing each of you a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving Holiday.

Time To Believe

Sometimes, life can be pretty interesting. Sometimes it takes great leaps forward leaving me a bit bewildered at how fast time can pass by. That happened to me the other day when I awoke from a dream of an incident that happened 32 years ago. In the dream, everyone looked and spoke exactly as they were at that moment in time back in 1977. It is amazing to me that our minds retain past events with such clarity. It was as if minutes separated me from that moment rather than decades.

Whenever I enter our Believe In Tomorrow Hospital or Respite facilities I am struck by how precious time can be for those families who are struggling with a child’s life threatening illness. Within our Believe In Tomorrow Houses time can take on a different perspective. I am sure that for many of our families minutes can often seem like hours through both the joyful and sad events of life. It is a strong lesson that nothing in life should ever be taken for granted. For me, being in a Believe In Tomorrow facility stirs a deep sense of urgency that we need to do so much more. It is hard to see the families that we serve and not feel that we need to expand and continue to improve our services as rapidly as possible, in order to provide for even more families in need. The expansion of our Believe In Tomorrow services is not something that can wait. It is not, in the large view of life, something that we should let a bad economy slow the pace of. When families are reaching for moments of time, we should take the time to move heaven and earth to provide them with assistance. For Believe In Tomorrow, that assistance is most often in the form of providing extraordinary housing services that help keep families together during their child’s medical crisis.

You can join our efforts today as we complete the construction of the Believe In Tomorrow House at Pinnacle Falls just outside of Asheville, North Carolina. When it is completed this summer it will serve as a national symbol of military pediatric respite support. It will also serve as a living symbol of everything that is good about the world we live in. Because we all know in our hearts that time can be a fleeting element, let’s get this Believe in Tomorrow House completed and start working on the next location.
We have all heard stories that at the last moments of life your memories flash through your mind. That could be a very rewarding experience if we use some time each day to make a positive difference in the life of those who most need our help. To find out more about our unique mission and how you can be a part of it, go to www.believeintomorrow.org

Honoring Those Who Serve

Veterans Day puts a face to the freedoms we enjoy in this country. It puts a face to those men and women who sacrifice so much for the freedoms large and small that we all too often take for granted. The faces of American veterans are those images of our grandparents and parents, our brothers and sisters, our children and grandchildren. They are all too often the gentle faces of young men and women who have volunteered to protect us with their very lives.

Two years ago Believe In Tomorrow embarked on an initiative to greatly increase our service to active military personnel who have children in medical crisis. I am enormously proud of Believe In Tomorrow's Military Housing Initiative. It is an opportunity to show our gratitude and support to veterans while fulfilling our core mission of helping sick children. It is the right thing to do, and we are dedicated to expanding this effort to serve as many families as we possibly can. I have had the opportunity to meet many of these families and I am always impressed by their strength of character and their courage.

The American Freedom Foundation is holding a Veterans Day concert at Constitution Hall and they have named Believe In Tomorrow as one the beneficiaries of the event. Martina McBride and Darryl Worley are performing at this year’s concert on November the 10^th, which honors our military veterans. We feel that it is quite an honor for Believe In Tomorrow to be recognized for the work that we have been doing and we want to thank the American Freedom Foundation for all the wonderful work they do to support these efforts.

I opened the paper this morning to read about a young man who grew up near where I live. The Pentagon announced yesterday that Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri, a 27-year-old Green Beret in the Army's Special Forces, died last week while on a training mission in the Philippines. I never had the honor of meeting Mr. Curreri, but I will be thinking of him and his family this Veterans Day and thanking him for his service and sacrifice to our country. I will think of all of those brave veterans who have gone before and of all of those who are serving today. I will be thinking of my oldest son Ryan, who is a Marine officer training to be a pilot. And, I will be asking God to bless each and every one of them.

Building The Believe In Tomorrow House at Pinnacle Falls

I just returned from Hendersonville, North Carolina where several events were held to support the construction of the Believe In Tomorrow House at Pinnacle Falls. When completed next May, this new Believe In Tomorrow retreat facility will be the first in the United States to prioritize military pediatrics.

Many volunteers working on this project attended a reception last Thursday. During the event, I mentioned to everyone that one of the things that I have been the proudest of since I started Believe In Tomorrow 25 years ago is the opportunity to meet and work with so many extraordinary people. I believe in the power of good.......and I believe that good people joining together can accomplish amazing things. David Amick, the Believe In Tomorrow 2007 Unsung Hero of the Year Award recipient is a living symbol of all that is good in our world. His story is profiled in our Fall Newsletter. His work in North Carolina to build a retreat for military pediatrics is attracting many other good people to join our efforts there. Jennifer Taylor and everyone at Renaissance Communities are one great example. Their positive energy and enthusiasm to build the Believe In Tomorrow House at Pinnacle Falls is contagious within their community. Positive enthusiasm by the way is one of the telltale signs of good people. Attending the reception were also a number of people from Combs Construction, another great group of talented people with big hearts.

And speaking of big hearts, Joe Wise is a man with a great big heart. Joe’s company, J-4 Electric, is coordinating all of the electrical work for the Believe In Tomorrow House at Pinnacle Falls. In addition, Joe launched an event called Bikers Believe in North Carolina to expand awareness and raise funds for the construction of the project. The event was held several weeks ago and was a great success that Joe plans on repeating next year.

On Saturday I spent the day at Pinnacle Falls where Renaissance Communities hosted a reception. It was a beautiful clear day and a wonderful opportunity to see for myself the natural beauty that surrounds the future site of our retreat facility. I hiked to the waterfalls and sat for a while, enjoying the sounds of nature and the cascading water. By every measure it exceeds our goal of providing families with an environment that will help them to renew themselves mentally, physically and spiritually. It reminded me of a letter written long ago by a mother of a child in our programs who stayed at another Believe In Tomorrow retreat.

She wrote, "I do not know what God has in store for my son, but somehow being in a place like this restores our faith. How can you not be restored when surrounded by God’s beauty?”