Breadth & depth.

Thanks for this one, Ali!

2011 Optimism

As 2011 has just started, I'm optimistic about the fresh year ahead.  We have been spoiled with supporters organizing a Softball Tournament in Park City the weekend of Feb. 26...The Kyrie Foundation has our annual Scrapbooking Krop set for April 2nd (Family Church - Wichita)...the annual Kyrie Klassic Golf Tournament is a-go for June 4 (Sierra Hills - Wichita)...our fourth-annual Twilight Walk will take place on Sept. 17 (Bishop Carrol High School - Wichita), and our 2011 Metamorphosis Art & Gift Auction will be finalized soon (weekend of Nov. 12).  The optimism comes from the turnout and response to the events we've held each year.  You have told us what we are trying to do is good and that we should continue to do so.  I'm optimistic about the conversations I've had with people who say "I want to help" or "I'd like to sponsor this event next year".  From our own experiences and that of our invaluable volunteers, this is certainly not an easy endeavor, however your encouragement and your support makes each event better and it fuels that optimism.  I wish each of you the best in all aspects of your lives in 2011 and thank you for bringing The Kyrie Foundation closer to help funding a cure for pediatric brain cancer.  - Chad

Snowballs or Softballs?

Who knows in February!?!? Either way, you can get in the game with the

1st Annual Kyrie Foundation

Co-ed & Men's Softball Tournament

Double Elimination

Saturday, February 26th: Co-ed

Sunday, February 27th: Men's
McLean Park in Park City, KS 

Gate Admission: $5 or a NEW Unwrapped Toy

Entry Fee: $200

This is a USSSA-sanctioned tournament where ALL tournament and team sanction fees are included in the entry fee!

Team registration forms are available and required. Download yours here:
Co-ed

Men's

Mail your entry fee and team registration to:

Kristi Love

513 Parkwood Drive

Rose Hill, KS 67133

Entry fee and team registration are due to Kristi by FEBRUARY 18. Play-off schedule will be determined upon team submissions.

For more information, contact Kristi Love at 216.712.9301 or klove@pmcwichita.com.

And ... all proceeds benefit pediatric brain cancer research with The Kyrie Foundation! Woo-woo! Also, if you're looking for a volunteer opportunity or service hours, we'll post volunteer openings shortly.

Woo-hoo!

Happened to open my browser for a search and guess who popped up in the corner?!?!!?

Yep! There we are!! By the way, 2011 was our best year yet with GoodSearch and GoodShop. It's easy to make this your home page and use it the way you would Google or Yahoo!.

Also, you can download the toolbar, too! Makes it even easier.

A thought.

My boss sent this out to my colleagues and I last week. I thought it was a nice thing to ponder as we look to creating 2011. And ... I still owe you all the good report from Frosty and Elf Rita's trip last month as well as a few pics from our stellar 2010 art auction!

Bigger or smaller?

Every decision we make, every encounter we have... we get a choice.

Are we opening doors or closing them?

It's so tempting to shut people down, to limit the upside, to ostracize, select and demonize. It makes things a lot simpler. Not seeing means you don't have to take action. Not opening means it's easier to announce that you're done. And not raising the bar means you're less likely to fail.

Just about all the things we treasure in our world were built by people who were intent on making things bigger, enabling things to be better, opening doors for us to achieve. The line between a realist and a optimist is hard to draw. And both might be self-fulfilling.

[Please don't confuse this with the issue of focus. Focus involves eliminating options until you have so few moving parts that work actually gets done. You can be focused but still think bigger.]

What a happy 2010 we had!

I'm a big fan of hindsight. I advocate self-reflection and celebrate how all the pieces of life's great puzzle fit together. This is particularly true when it come to this work. We have all brought so many gifts into this medley of divine-directed goodness—goodness that would have gone undone had we all not stepped forward into this leap of faith.

Looking back over the landscape of 2011, I'm flabbergasted by all the we accomplished. This was truly a breakthrough year!

• We delivered our FIRST $50,000 research grant to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, which launched The Kyrie Foundation Tissue Bank Fund! This is precisely what we had set forth to do. Get more research going to cure cancer? Check!

• We welcomed Wendy Wilkinson to our hardworking board of directors! She has been a much appreciated addition to all of the fundraising that our merry band of do-gooders offers to the world.

• Our third annual scrapbooking krop was a sell-out and then some! We also presented our very first Kyrie Foundation awards to several special souls who have initiated even more cancer-curing fundraising and awareness on our behalf.

• We welcomed Amy Nelson to our hardworking board of directors! Amy has been such an enthusiastic inspiration and a well-spring of great ideas for the foundation's future success!

• Never before had I seen such a magnificent work of craftsmanship: The Kyrie Foundation wood-fired grill! Courtesy of Danny Schneider and Kruse Corporation, this thing is smokin'--literally. And now we have so many options for fundraising that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

• We added yet ANOTHER fundraiser to our repertoire: the Kyrie Klassic golf tournament! It was a great morning at Sierra Hills and a happy birthday for one of our most devoted volunteers, Andi.

• In addition to our beautiful bracelets, cookbooks and designer tees, we now have reusable totes, water bottles and hooded sweatshirts!

• Two of our youngest and most loyal supporters swept the Fundraising Challenge at this year's Twilight Walk! Sister-and-brother duo Madison and Mason showed us all how amazing it is when kids help other kids and ... this was our largest grossing Twilight Walk yet!

• We met, shared information and found solidarity with the founder of the new Texas-based Layla Grace Foundation.

• We made it into Pepsi's October Refresh Everything grant contest! A whirlwind of support—everything from school assemblies to new friends at St. Micheal's to a parade float!—catapulted us into the #4 spot! Stay tuned for more info on another chance in 2011!

• Our third-annual Metamorphosis art+gift auction proved to be our highest yielding fundraising EVER! And ... we auctioned off a trip to the 2011 Grammy's!!

• We were graciously chosen as the beneficiaries of the incredible Heart of America Men's Chorus Christmas concert! Which led to ...

• Frosty & Elf Rita had more toys than ever for their annual Christmas visit to Wesley hospital's pediatric floor! And more volunteers than ever, too!

WOW, right? I mean, isn't it amazing how much we can accomplish when we work together? Stunning, absolutely stunning. Another round of heartfelt thanks to all of you who support this endeavor, continue to read this blog, spread the word, boost enthusiasm, make the phone calls, send the e-mails and so much more.

And this being New Year's Eve, a toast to our supporters and especially to my fellow board members: I know this work isn't easy. It doesn't easily fit into schedules. Donations don't come easily. Volunteers are sometimes hard to find. It's isn't easy plowing ahead when none of us have done this before. We have great expectations from ourselves, an attribute born of integrity. We dare to do when the world barely cares. Yet we have all acknowledged at one time or another that those who step forward to care about this cause aren't chosen by us but rather called by Him.

Thank you for being part of the solution, part of the cure. Thank you for putting up with me. Thank you for caring about children you've never met. Thank you for showing how everyone that miracles are made of a million minutes of hard work. Thank you for bringing your best to the table.

Here's to 2011 with The Kyrie Foundation! Cheers!

A message from Frosty!

Toys are sorted and bagged and ready for Frosty & Elf Rita to deliver to the 33 kiddos who are stuck in the hospital tonite! We had the most donation of toys that we have ever had...WOW! Thank YOU to all of our supporters and contributors!!

Merry Christmas!
luv,
Frosty