A Letter from the Founder/President of Sky High For St. Jude

I have been involved with St. Jude Hospital for several years and it began the day I was crowned Ms. Acadiana in 1998. The pagent director, Billy Menard, allowed her queens to raise money for St. Jude Hospital and in turn, visit Memphis to personally bring the proceeds. The trip was a life changing experience, and I truly felt that God had shown me my vocation in life; helping others in need. I witnessed children of all ages suffer from the effects of disease treatment and I will never forget the first child that i encountered. Dalton was 8 years old, tall, cute and very shy. He lost his hair, and you knew that bothered him. The group cooked a Gumbo for the families and when it was time to eat, Dalton replied "I'm not hungry". His mother informed me that he had not eated a solid meal in 3 days! I sat beside him and asked him if he would eat dinner with me? With a little encouragement, he ate half of his gumbo. His mother was so excited she started crying and from that day forward I knew that i would always be with the children of St. Jude. God showed me my vocation in life...Helping others in need.

Children undergoing intense treatment do not want to eat, or be active. It is very important that they receive the vitamins and minerals they need to keep them strong through treatment. Once Dalton warmed up to me, we played games outside, and he was even crowned the King of Mardi Gras that evening. His family was extremely grateful for everything we did as a group to help their children forget about being sick for an afternoon.

The week of the event, we were all nervous, anxciuos, excited, and lacked sleep due to the preparations. I remember Thursday night, the girls met at the Wildreness Clubhouse and Hex had cooked a huge chicken spaghetti in order for us to come together as a committee and bond during our final preparations. We ate spagetti, stuffed ditty bags, set up prizes, stressed about the next two days, laughed, cried, and at the end we all sat on the floor and asked God to help us get through this for the children of St. Jude. We had to remind each other the reason behind all of the long hours, and stress. The children~ who need our help, love, compassion, and support through their time of long hours of treatment, stress, sadness, and prayer.

Our goal in the up coming years are to only grow together as a committee and make this shoot better and better. We want to bring smiles to the faces of St. Jude Hospital. We want the community to help take away pain, and bring happiness, and joy to the patients, and their families.

The morning of the shoot, I was holding a microphone, standing in front of hundreds of participants, volunteers, survivors, and God, I looked out and thought. We did it, we really did it. At the end of a long, hot, stressful, fun, and exciting day, we came together and realized that we had raised $50,000 for St. Jude. Once that sunk in, we all took a deep breath and smiled. I know that we all had the best feeling inside.

This is my story, and now it is ours together~

Finding Cures. Saving Children.