Saying thank you.

Ever notice how sometimes saying "thank you" just doesn't seem to do an act, words, a gift, justice?

This weekend at Scraptacular, at the end of my last workshop, I was presented with a check for $1200 to be donated to an Autism foundation of my choice on behalf of the owners, employees and customers of the store.

For the last month or so they have been raising money through donations, make & takes, and a raffle all to benefit Autism awareness, education, research. As you can imagine, I totally lost it when presented with this check (actually I pretty much lost it when Pam asked me to come up to the front and just started talking about autism) - it totally took me by surprise. The thought, the energy, the time and the passion that went into the whole thing just blew me away.

So thank you Pam, Rick, Ricky, Val, Tricia, Jenn, Nicole, Jen, Erika, Stephanie, Janie, Tara, and anyone else I am forgetting at this early hour in the airport. Thank you for always treating me like family. Thank you for doing this amazing thing that has the potential to benefit so many. Thank you for doing good. I love you guys.

And as an extra little bit of serendipity, the raffle tickets being bought were for a grand prize to have me design a layout with the winners photos. I drew the winner (Sue) yesterday afternoon and we called her on the phone to give her the news. You will not believe what Sue is doing this month...she is running a camp for kids ages 2-teen with autism. Yep. Serendipity. She will be sending me a bunch of photos from the camp and I am going to put together an album for her.

And thank you to each of the women (and Ricky) in the workshops. Thanks for coming to play and for sharing your stories and taking a break and being open to doing something outside of your comfort zone. I had the best time. Looking forward to seeing everyone again soon!