Emily’s Entourage presents a (hefty) check to the CFF!

Dearest EE blog readers,

What a whirlwind of a day! At 7:30 am sharp, my mom, dad, Julia and I left Philly geared with Starbucks coffee and hearts bubbling with excitement and anticipation.

A sleepy Coby boarded a Baltimore-bound flight all the way from New Orleans.

We met in Baltimore and continued on our way to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation national office in Bethesda, MD.  We even got there with time to spare! Coby and Julia took a sneak peak at the BIG check. It amazes us every single time we see that final sum – $83,233.822. It represents what a community can do when we come together with a common goal – in this case, to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research.

At noon, we walked into the Foundation office. We were excited, nervous, not sure what to expect and just trying to take it all in.

We were greeted by Dr. Beall, who true to legend literally oozed energy and exuberance. He escorted us up to a conference room where we were joined by Dr. Preston Campbell, Gina Shewe, Steve Rich, Eileen Miley and a handful of others throughout the day.

And so it began.

We discussed the drug development pipeline at length, we expressed our profound gratitude for their unbelievable efforts to get us closer to a cure and we learned about the Foundation’s impressive initiatives to get critical drugs to people who need them. We shared our “thank you” video to the anonymous donor with the group and left a copy (with a card!) with Gina to send to the family. After ceremoniously handing over the BIG check to Dr. Beall, we posed for some photos. $83,233.82!! We still can’t get our heads around that amazing total!

I think I speak for my whole family when I say that after meeting with the CFF team, we feel honored and comforted to have such committed, visionary, compassionate, driven, intelligent and remarkable people leading the way to a cure for CF.

Thank you all for making this incredible day possible. We could not have done ANY of this without you!

With love, gratitude and lots of hope for a cure,

Emily