Prom for kidney teens and young adults

[okarol]

Dear Friends - This is a project near and dear to my heart! Every year there's a wonderful prom for teenagers and young adults with kidney disease. Everything at the 2010 Renal Teen Prom is FREE - gowns for the girls and ties for the boys are donated, dinner and party treats included, transportation is covered.

Long time survivor, Lori Hartwell, founder and president of RSN, glowed with happiness watching the teens dance, laugh, and make friends at last year's event. “That’s why I created the Renal Teen Prom,” she exclaimed. “I missed my own prom because of chronic kidney disease, which I have had since I was 2. I spent all my teenage years on dialysis. I know that one friend can make a difference, and we give these young people the chance to get to know others who are like them, walking in the same shoes.”

This is the 11th annual prom and I am so honored to help with planning it this year. Lori Hartwell and her team do a fabulous job! The theme is "Masquerade!"
Please send this info on to young kidney patients, friends and family. And if you'd like to donate, or live in the LA area and can drive a teen, please follow the link below.

http://rsnhope.org/programs/renal_teen_prom2.php

Jenna and her brother will also be volunteering again this year!
Please contact me if you'd like more information at kidney4jenna@yahoo.com.
 

[Jean]

that is a wonderful and worthwhile project. Teens with CKD are left out enough as it is.

[Brianna!]

I told my mom about this, how I really want to go, but I don't think I can go, since I live in Wisconsin. I'm going to tell my grandparents about this, and see if they'll pay for me to go. I'm sure my grandma would want me to. I hope I can go!

[RichardMEL]

Brianna I would be happy to donate FF miles, as in a ticket (United - sorry!) for you to get to California if everything else could be worked out.

[Brianna!]

Richard, are you serious? You have no idea how happy that just made me. I'm crying right now. Happy tears and I can't beleive someone would be so nice, tears! I told my mom, and she's about to cry also.

Thank you so much. You have NO idea how much that means to me.

[RichardMEL]

Richard, are you serious? You have no idea how happy that just made me. I'm crying right now. Happy tears and I can't beleive someone would be so nice, tears! I told my mom, and she's about to cry also.

Thank you so much. You have NO idea how much that means to me.

totally serious. I have more than enough FF miles and since I can't really travel it would be my pleasure to help someone like you get some enjoyment out of them by going to the teen prom, if you can get a spot and all that stuff of course.

if when it's all organised you can PM me details and we can try and see if we can find some flights to make it happen!

[Pam]

RichardMel.....That is the most generous unselfish offer you made to Brianna! I  it works out for both of you. What goes around comes around and someday you will be greatly rewarded for that offer. You are an exceptional young man!!!!
Pam

[RichardMEL]

woohoo! someone called me young!!!!! You should see the grey creeping into my hair  

 

seriously though honestly it would be my pleasure. Of course Brianna only has a couple of weeks to register and make sure she can get a spot and all that but if I can help in a small way it would be a great pleasure to do so. I used to travel heaps before dialysis so got a few hundred thousand points sitting in my kitty. Now I want to keep most of them for the time I am hopefully able to again travel long haul, but in the meantime if I can put a few towards a worthy cause like this and make a young lady dealing with tough times happy for a bit then that's my pleasure and worth it to me (and just quietly if I spend some they won't expire for another 18 months!!!) so that works (hopefully) for both of us.

I can request FF tickets in other people's names so that should be no problem, and hopefully we can find the seats and all that for Brianna and her mom or whoever she would be going with.... so hopefully she can get accepted to go, organise somewhere to stay and all that stuff and we can all make it happen for her!

[okarol]

  RichardMel - you are so sweet to offer to help her with the travel expenses!

I can help by finding a place for you to stay when you're here Brianna!

 

[Brianna!]

Thanks Karol! I will definitely PM you, when I find out if there's a spot for me!By the way, what are the chances that the spots are all filled up? Just curious.

[okarol]

I just sent Lori Hartwell this thread and I am pretty sure she'll save you a spot! 

Go to the webpage below and print out the response card and send it in.

[RichardMEL]

Yeah Lori is cool. I listen to kidney talk all the time. Brianna is exactly the sort of person the teen prom is for and I reckon she'd love to make it happen for you!! 

[Brianna!]

Thank you Karol! My printer's not hooked up right now, we moved in a couple months ago, and we still aren't unpacked! But I'll go to my grandpa's tomorrow after dialysis and print it off there.

You guys are amazing. Thank you. And I can't wait to meet Lori, I saw some videos from the prom the last two years and she seems like an amazing person. And she's short like me! I'm going to be glad to be around short people like myself.   

 The smiles are working for me but *hugs* !

[Jean]

RicharMel, you are one awesome guy, what a wonderful thing to do.

[RichardMEL]

please, don't call me awesome(*) until it happens. We need to get Brianna a place and everything else worked out and THEN hopefully united will be able to find some seats from WI to Cali to get her there and back, so still a few hoops to jump, but I hope I can play my small part to give her the night of her life! 


(*) my renal team is welcome to call me awesome if that means they'll stamp me as "most compliant" and that goes to the transplant gods

[Brianna!]

Richard if the flight there and back doesn't work out, I just realized my grandpa has some FF also. My aunt does too. So I don't NEED to take them from you.

[RichardMEL]

Well just in case Brianna doesn't need my help I just donated to RSN to send a couple of teens to the prom, so thanks for the link Karol and I've done a little something to help anyway

[okarol]

  Thanks Richard!

[cariad]

Oh, Brianna, I hope you do go! Take lots of  and tell us all about it when you return.

Richard, what a doll you are. Reading this whole exchange really made my day.

I second that "exceptional young man" comment.   

[topazbeauty]

Brianna if you need a dress I'm in Madison WI, I'm not sure where you are. But I used to be a town representative (princess) so I have a lot of dresses in a lot of different sizes (you know how weight fluctuates). Dresses, tiaras, gloves, shoes, pretty much whatever you would ever need.

[RichardMEL]

I think I read on the website that karol linked to that they provide the gowns and stuff in California which is pretty cool!!

Topaz that's a lovely offer. Watching some of the videos on the website you just wouldn't know a lot of them were on dialysis or had transplants or whatever... they just looked like the usual mix of young people at a dance. It was fantastic

This is one of the things I love about IHD, and one of the  reasons I made my offer to Brianna... we all pull together as a community to help each other out... and that's so very special I think. I wanted to contribute.

[Brianna!]

topazbeauty send me a PM, I might want some gloves or something. I live like an hour from madison.

[topazbeauty]

Hey Brianna-  My PM stopped working and I can't get it to start again. You can email me at ms.jessica.renee@gmail.com so we can figure things out. Thanks!

[kitkatz]

Brianna, if you need a place to stay for free in California for the prom you can stay in Rialto with us.  I can drive you to the prom if needed. I have a messy guest room, if you will have it.

[RichardMEL]

so yeah what's the update with this... the registrations have closed by now and all that. What's happening? Is our Brianna getting to be a prom queen???