Kicking Off Our First Work Day!

Well we did it! We kicked off our first work day today! The weather was a little iffy at first, I really thought it was going to rain, but it ended up being blue skies and productivity at Randy's! We worked hard and ate very well! James and I made ribs and Randy's friend Shan and his family came out and provided us with some delicious potato salad, boudan & sausage. Patty and Cliff came with rolls and Cliff went right to work driving stakes into the ground and stringing the house boundaries. We took a break to eat some lunch and then went to work cutting trees, burning old wood and getting the land ready to build on! Don't worry if you missed out today, we have plenty of work days left! I promise! Here are some pictures from today. I will be posting more, just wanted to get these in here so you can get an idea of what we did today :)

Mac and Cliff staking the house boundaries.

Mapping out a plan

Burning old wood

Getting to work!

It's really happening!

Mac working hard getting the logs cut to burn

It was a a great day! Our next work day will include more burning, cutting down more trees and getting ready to lay the pier and beam. Thank you to everyone that came out and got their hands dirty. It is looking great already and this was just day ONE :)

Brown Bag Lunch Fundraiser

FRIDAY, MARCH 15th.

We started out an amazing weekend delivering lunches to those businesses that ordered a brown bag lunch to support our Brown Bag Lunch fundraiser. We delivered lunches to Clayton Homes, BBS Insurance, Ken's Pawn Shop & Department of Public Safety. It was a blast! We delivered 38 lunches in all. We appreciate everyone's support and we actually have been thinking about doing another lunch delivery in the future and seeing about getting more businesses to participate :)

SATURDAY, MARCH 16th.

Saturday, we were manning our station at the Etoile Volunteer Fire Department selling lunches from 11 am to 3 pm. We had an amazing turn out and met some awesome people! There was about 5 of us out there and what a beautiful day it was! We sold about 80 or more lunches and...drum roll please....we raised.....$760.00! It ended up being a great turn out. I want to thank those that came out to show their support. Some bought lunches, others just wanted to make a donation and let us know what a great thing we were doing for Randy and Millie. I would also like to thank the following for their help:

• Mrs. Mandy - For standing out by the road and dancing and moving with her sign, so that people would stop by and buy a lunch. Also for driving around to the boat ramps selling lunches as well as keeping us entertained for 4 hours. 
• Randy's Mom, Kathryn - For making some amazing cookies (that we're still eating on) to sell with the lunches and for sticking with us the whole time making sandwiches and getting people to buy raffle tickets. 
• Mr. Hottman & Mrs. Hottman - Thank you for all of your hard work! Your contributions and for staying out there selling lunches with us! It means a lot that you were there. 
• Everyone who stopped and bought a lunch, everyone that gave an extra donation, those that came by and only gave a donation and those that bought raffle tickets. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are what made this a successful fundraiser. I am so happy to be apart of such an amazing community! 

These great people came by to show their support and buy some lunches too! 

I will be posting more picture of our Brown Bag Lunch Event and...if you would like to know how our work day went on Sunday..I"ll post more about that tomorrow morning :) Good night. God bless. 

Ole!

Whew! I've got all my running around done for the deliveries tomorrow! Before heading home, we stopped and ate at Casa Ole with Patty and Cliff. We had a great time, mainly discussed the plans for the house and talked about our upcoming work day this weekend. This is going to be an awesome first step! Sunday we're mainly making a material list, seeing what is already laid out there and, as James said it best earlier, having a "meeting of the minds."

My mind keeps repeating itself over and over.."this is really happening", "we're making this happen." I am just so incredibly thankful that Building Bridges has become what I set out for it to become. It has brought Randy's family closer together, it has brought awareness to an illness that reeks havoc on those that are diagnosed with it and their loved ones and it has brought complete strangers together for the same cause.

Okay, I know a lot of you are wondering how much money we've been able to raise to date. So I sat down tonight and tried to give you a pretty good look into where we're at so far. Here is how awesome you all are and how much help you all have been. As of March 14, 2013 at 9:25pm CST we have raised:

• T-SHIRTS - $526.00
• GIVE FORWARD - $490.00
• SILENT AUCTION - $295.00
• TOTAL - $1311.00

and if you are thinking that isn't a whole lot...that is without any of our fundraiser events and that is 90% of that being raised since this past Monday. We already have enough money raised to build the pier and beam for the house to sit on as well as lay the plywood floor! That is an amazing first step! I will be delivering lunches tomorrow morning and spending most of the rest of the day getting ready for our event on Saturday. 

Also...I have big news for the crawfish boil. I got the approval from the core today that we are permitted to host the Crawfish Boil Fundraiser at Shirley Creek Marina in Etoile! That was truly a blessing because when I first talked to them about it, they told me that because we weren't a 501(3)c recognized non profit, it probably wouldn't happen. But whoever is the one to say yes or no to those things, must of been having a great day, because...they said YES! This all must be God's will, because it has not been very hard getting things to come together. 

Good night all. I'll post more after the Brown Bag Lunch Event this weekend. See you there! 

About Building Bridges

Building Bridges Benefit has successfully brought together a small community in Texas in efforts to build a single dad battling cancer and his daughter a new home. It was a promise made by Randy to his daughter Millie and we intend to help him keep his promise.

Randy Bridges is battling Multiple Myeloma, a cancer that attacks the plasma cells in bone marrow. It was no surprise that he had it. He just thought he had already beaten it. We are all rooting him on for another successful treatment and many, many more years to spend with friends and family frying catfish, enjoying crawfish and living out on the Attoyac.

We are raising money for the house as well as anything anything extra to take the financial burden away and allow Randy to get treatment and have a relaxing and stress free experience as much as possible. We are raising money through fundraisers such as our Brown Bag Lunch Event, Crawfish Boil, and other events in the making. We are also selling t-shirts and cookbooks in efforts to raise enough funds to break ground on their home as soon as possible.

Building Bridges Benefit was featured on KTRE news on March 11, 2013 and ever since its airing, support has poured out of every corner of Texas. This experience has humbled me tremendously and I look forward to seeing this project through till the end. I want to thank everybody for their amazing support both for Randy and Millie and also to Building Bridges Benefit. I will be posting many updates and pictures as we go along. God bless.