Mended Little Hearts of Central California

October Meeting

2009-10-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hello Heart Families,
This month the Fresno and Visalia MLH groups will meet together!
We are planning on having a special day for all of you. Hope you can join us for food, fun and laughter. As a special treat, KICS Club from Rio Vista Middle School will be on hand to watch, play games and make wonderful crafts with the children. Also, Julie Jobinger Photography will be on hand to take pictures of our families. We will be able to use these photographs for promotional purposes and you will have a chance to take family pictures for those holiday memories. There have been a few changes to the MLH family, so come and join us to find out what they are. Costumes are not required but if you would like, please feel free to wear them. Hope to see you there!
When: Saturday October 24th
Time: 12:30 pm
Place: Faith Community Church of the Nazarene 430 Peach Ave. Clovis CA

2009-04-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

Hello Heart Friends!
Check out the news today on Channel 47 at 6:30 am, 12pm, 5pm and 11pm
Mended Little Hearts will be featured in a story!
Many thanks to Jenny Toste for taking on this project and helping to raise awareness about CHD and the support that Mended Little Hearts provides.

http://www.cbs47.tv/content/special_features/story/Nationwide-Support-Group-Started-in-Fresno/pfbkUFC9RkGL-6TuFVyr8g.cspx

Our annual Spring picnic is coming up next month. Check back in the next few days to find out the details!

CHD Day Party

2009-02-23T15:50:00.000-08:00

We had a great CHD (congenital heart defect) Awareness Day Party on February 14, 2009! There were fun games, prizes, crafts, cookie decorating and of course good company. Thanks to all who came and helped out. All of the parents joined in and helped with games and everyone had a great time with the family competitions (pie eating and balloon relay). MLH of Fresno has great families and I'm glad that we can get together and celebrate our brave heroes!

Our Awesome Kids!

2009-01-18T18:34:00.000-08:00

At our January meeting we recieved some great iformation from registered dietician, Melissa Cornelius. Everyone was able to ask questions and go home with a great hand-out of information. After the parents learned about nutrition and the kids played games, ate snacks and did crafts with the Rio Vista KICS club we all came together to put together some special packages.

The kids all assembled gift baskets to give out to other heart kids on Valentine's Day. We wanted to honor all of the CHD kids who will be at CHCC on CHD Awareness Day A.K.A. Valentine's Day. All of the kids at the meeting made a few gift baskets. Many of the kids even included hand made Valentine's! It was heart warming to see how excited all of the kids were to help out other children. I am so proud of all of the kids in our group (both heart kids and siblings)!!!!

January 2009 Meeting

2009-01-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

Hello Heart Friends!

Happy New Year!

As we welcome in 2009 we've decided to help you out with one of the most popular New Years resolutions....healthy eating!We wil have the opportunity to hear from nutritionist, Melissa Cornelius. Not only is Melissa a nutritionist who has worked at CHCC, but she is also a heart mom! So, she knows all about the nutrition concerns of a heart parent. Come ready to ask any nutrition questions you may have and the kiddos will have a chance to make a hands on, fun and healthy snack!

When: Saturday January 17, 2009

Where: Faith Community Church of the Nazarene 430 Peach Ave. Clovis, CA

For more information: Carlie (559) 734-7876

Calling all bilingual parents!Our goal is to reach all heart families. Unfortunately we are unable to do that at this time because of language barriers. If you fluently speak another language (especially Spanish) please let us know if you would be interested in reaching out to families who we currently are not able to give support to because of language barriers. If you'd like to help out please contact: Carlie: (559) 734-7876If your child is going in to have surgery, please let us know! We would love to send them a care package. We also have trained visitors who are willing and ready to visit.

Photo Shoot!

2008-10-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Heart Friends!

We are getting together for a professional photo shoot! Alyssa Smith of A & S Photo Design http://www.aandsphotodesign.com/ has offered to take our group photos. She will be taking pictures of the heart kids so that we can use them for fliers, posters, thank you notes, website, etc. She has also offered to waive her $250 sitting fee for any families that want to take family portraits at the same time. If you choose to have your family portrait taken you will be given a link to a website where the pictures will be uploaded. You can then order photos of your child/family (prices start at $6 for a 4x6) from her website.Please show up on time and have all CHD'ers wear red (they can wear a plain red shirt / dress or their MLH shirt) and blue jeans.This is a great opportunity to take your family photos for your holiday cards!

There is an entrance fee to get into Woodward park:$3 for Fresno residents (must show drivers license)$5 for non-fresno residents

We will have a sign posted as to where we are or you can call Lisa or Carlie that afternoon to find out the actual location (the photographer will need to see which spot has the best background and lighting).We hope to see you there!

Please let us know if you think you will be able to make it!

September Meeting

2008-08-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

September Meeting:
When: Saturday September 6, 2008
Time: 2 pm - 4 pm
Place: Faith Community Church of the Nazarene 430 Peach Ave. Clovis CA
Topic: Debbie Truhett from the American Heart Association will join us to let us know what the American Heart Association is doing on a local and national level to help CHD. We will also be forming our heart walk team. The heart walk is coming up in October and we hope to have a great turn out!**As always children are welcome at all meetings and childcare will be available.

Heart Heros

2008-06-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

This is Evan Turk. He is a heart hero! If you've ever met this little guy you would know how special he is. He is well spoken, friendly and easy going. He has also been through more in his 10 years of life, than most adults. Even though Evan had surgery coming up this year, he took the time think about others. He was tired of seeing all poor quality food that people donated to local food banks. He wished that people would donate better food to the people who really needed it. Evan did not sit around and hope that things would change....he went out and made a difference. He was on a mission! He went out and collected 3,883 cans and turned them in for money to buy good quality food for the food bank. Here is a picture of him with the food that he donated!!

What an inspiration Evan is. A few weeks ago Evan came home from having pace maker surgery. He is doing well and I'm sure he's already thinking about what his next project is going to be.....well after he gets back from Camp Taylor!

Zoo Trip

2008-06-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

Instead of our annual picnic, Mended Little Hearts hosted a zoo day this year. The heat kept a lot of people at home this year, but those who went had a great time. We were also lucky enough to have Susie (heart mom to a 20 yr.old) come and give us information about the education system at our picnic lunch. Thanks Susie! And thanks to everyone who came out into the heat to see the animals!

Camp Taylor

2008-06-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

On June 6th 5 families from Mended Little Hearts were able to attend family camp. Mended Little Hearts was happy to pay the registration fee for these families so that they could experience "The Seasons of The Year" at Camp Taylor. My family had a blast and I heard from other families that they also had a great time. Camp Taylor is a wonderful organization and really know how to make our heart kids feel special. In a few weeks we will also have at least 5 kids ages 7-12 will be heading to youth camp! Thank you Camp Taylor for the memories that will last a lifetime!

Let's Go Golf!

2008-04-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

Eric Schweitzer our Mended Hearts Vice President is doing his 11th annual golf tournament. Last year he gave the proceeds to Camp Taylor and this year proceeds will go to our own MLH of Central California.
The information is as follows:
Where: Sierra Meadows Golf Course
46512 Opha Drive
Oakhurst CA 93644
(559) 642-1340
When: May 17th, 2008
10:30 am check in
11:30 am Lunch
2:00 pm Shotgun start

Fee: $100.00 per person
Includes Golf Cart, Golf and lunch

Directions: Fresno North to Oakhurst. Left on Hwy 49
Proceed about 2 miles to Harmony Lane
Right turn and follow signage to Golf Course.

Any questions can be answered by Eric at 683-4942 or cell 760-4212

This is a four man scramble form your teams now!

This may be a great opportunity to get our Dads involved! If there is any interest it will help benefit our group. So, go and get those teams put together and give Eric a call to sign up!!

April Meeting!

2008-03-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

Our next meeting is right around the corner!
Date: April 12th, 2008
Time: 2:00 pm
Location: Faith Community Church of the Nazarene 430 Peach Ave. Clovis, CA
Topic: Our speaker, Susie Astiasuain, is going to share her experiences being a heart mom for a little over twenty years. Susie is also going to share her knowledge of educational services that some heart kids qualify for. Susie works for an early intervention program in Reedley and has also gone through the whole school process with her son. She will go over some terms such as IEP, 504 plan and early intervention. This will be an informative meeting for everyone.

Mended Little Hearts Bumper Magnets

2008-03-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

The Bumper Magnets are in!!! These are great magnets that stick right on to metal parts of your car. What a better way to raise awareness than driving around town.
They cost $5 at a meeting or $5.50 to be shipped. I will bring them to our next meeting in April or you can email me at mom2macandzach@sbcglobal.net if you would like to have an order shipped to you.

February 2008 Meeting

2008-01-23T23:16:00.000-08:00

When: February 9th, 2008
Time: 2:00 pm
Where: Faith Community Church of the Nazarene 430 Peach Ave. Clovis CA

The Details: Dr. Malcolm MacDonald, pediatric cardio-thoracic surgeon at CHCC, has graciously agreed to come and speak. He would like to have an open dialog, so come prepared with questions! He is on call that day, so I'm sure we will all understand if he gets called in to work and cannot make it. In that case we will go ahead with our CHD Day party and try and reschedule for another time. We will have a dessert potluck and socializing for the adults and the kids will play games, do crafts and help paint a canvas to be auctioned off at the Camp Taylor fundraiser dinner.
We hope to see everyone there.
If you have any questions feel free to email me, leave a comment or call.

CHD Awareness Week

2008-01-23T23:07:00.000-08:00

As most of you know February 7th - 14th is designated CHD Awareness week. To help spread awareness Mended Little Hearts national office has sent our group some awareness materials. I wanted to let you all know about these materials in case you wanted to help spread awareness about CHD next month. We have most of the materials needed to have a successful CHD Awareness week / and or month! We have:
CHD Awareness brochures - if you know of a person or company that would be willing to help print these in color it would be extremely helpful!
sample proclomation letters
news release to send to newspapers / news stations
letter to the editor
sample public service announcement
and Mended Little Hearts fact sheets
So, if you'd like to help us spread the word about CHD either email me at mom2macandzach@sbcglobal.net or leave a comment.
Anything and everything you can do is greatly appreciated!

New Awareness Video

2007-12-20T23:16:00.001-08:00

Here is an awareness video that I recently made. My husband wrote the song for Makenna and we decided to make a video out of it. I hope you enjoy it!

CHD Awareness Day 2008

2007-12-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

CHD Day 2007:

The kiddo CHD'ers (and a few siblings) with the Adult CHD'ers
Getting ready for the balloon release
If you live in Central CA, what would you like to do for this years CHD Day? We are taking suggestions on what other heart families would like to do. Last year we had the Adult Congenital Heart Association come and speak and we had a little party and balloon release. Would you like to do something similar this year. Would you like a speaker, if so who? Would you like to do a party at the church? Would you like to meet somewhere fun, if so where? This is your group and we would love to have your input. Please leave a comment and let us know how you'd like to spend this CHD Day :-)

CHD Awareness week resolution

2007-12-16T15:54:00.000-08:00

Here is a post from a fellow heart mom:
Hi, We are once again trying to get Congress to pass a National CHD Awareness week resolution. My Congressman, Representative Robert Andrews (NJ) has introduced House Resolution 858, "Supporting the goals and ideals of the National Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week". You can read the resolution here:http://www.govtrack .us/congress/ bill...bill= hr110-858 Please contact your representatives and ask them to sign on to H.Res 858 as co-sponsors and we'll get this resolution passed this year! To contact your representatives, start here: http://www.house. gov Enter your zipcode into "Find your Representative" at the top left. Once you've done that, go to their official website (a link will be on the page) and send them an email message asking them to support H.Res 858. Feel free to pass this on and ask your friends and family to help and post on your pages. The more the better. Thanks, Lyn Justin 19 TGA,VSD,PS www.caringbridge. org/nj/justinw

A Chance to Give Back

2007-12-09T16:35:00.000-08:00

Here is a note from Sara Tanz:

Hi there everyone! Chloe's Brownie Troop is holding a donation drive to benefit Children's Hospital Central California. We are collecting new and used VHS movies and DVDs to donate to the hospital video library. We will be collecting donations thru Feb. 5th, 2008. Then the girls will take them to the hospital for a small ceremony. We are asking for no rated R movies, but all others are fine. Anyone that wishes to donate movies can either call me 593-1861 or send them to me or take them to:
Pack & Ship Pros
497 N. Clovis Ave #202
Clovis,Ca. 93611
My Mom is expecting that people will be dropping off movies at her store. WE really appreciate everyone's help.
This drive is so important to us since many of our girls have been treated by Children's Hospital or have a loved one who has. Aiden has used the videos in the video library many times and I wanted to help them get a larger selection for kids to choose from. Thanks again! Sara & Chloe

Welcome to Mended Little Hearts, Central CA blog

2007-12-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

Mended Little Hearts, a support program for parents of children with heart defects and heart disease, is dedicated to inspiring hope in those who care for the littlest heart patients of all. Mended Little Hearts offers resources and a caring support network as families find answers and move forward to find healing and hope. Our group is located in Fresno, CA. To find another Mended Little Hearts group you can go to www.mendedlittlehearts.org

This blog is used to post information about our upcoming meetings, fundraisers and other fun information. This group is open to all heart parents in Central CA no matter which hospital they use. We look forward to staying connected to friends new and old. For more informatoin about MLH of Fresno you can contact Carlie at mom2macandzach@sbcglobal.net, call (559) 734-7876 or leave a comment on this blog.