Messiah Lutheran Church VBS sends a check

Brett recieved a letter in the mail today formt he director of the VBS at Messiah Lutheran church in Lewiston, NY. They heard about Brett's project from my mother and chose it for this year's beneficiary of their VBS collection.

NMCC kids voted Lifestraw!!

The children's collection has grown over the last 4 years to just over $2000. Last week the choices were presented to the children that the money could be sent to from each class ($400 per class). They were Lifestraw, the cove, and an orphanage in Mexico. Today each class voted, the 3/4th grade group voted 13/1 for Lifestraw. 3 other classes also chose Lifestraw and one class did not vote yet.

The Essex Rotary Club

After several rescheduled dates, Brett made it to a dinner meeting at the Essex Yacht Club to present his project to the Essex Rotary Club. Our whole family joined him and it was a great night. He amazed me with the amount of information he was able to share during each slide. As we sat at the table before he went on, I overheard him tell Judy that he had a message for them from the Devon Rotary Club. it was that they had given him a check for $300 and that they should try to beat that. She stood up and announced the message to the whole group and one woman responded that if each person gave $20, they would have $400, well over the goal. And, they did, one at a time, they stood up and gave $20 and many kind words of praise for Brett and his efforts. I appreciated that someone mentioned how nice it was to see our whole family there to support him.

Devon Rotary Club

Brett presented to te Devon Rotary Club at a breakfast meeeting morning at the Stonebridge restaurant in Milford. At the end, they presented him with check for $300.

Home Water Consumption Calculatorhttp://wecalc.org/calc/#

I was shocked by the amount of water we use on a daily basis in our home!! And, we were on the low side compared to national averages.http://wecalc.org/calc/#

CNN mentions Lifestraw as one of Ten Things to Change the World

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/23/10.simple.things/index.html

LifeStraw SMM

The Day - Will You Give $5 to Brett's Cause? | News from southeastern Connecticut

The Day - Will You Give $5 to Brett's Cause? News from southeastern Connecticut

Interview

Jen Matteis came to our house to interview for The Source today. He was a little nervous, but as usual, handled it very well. She said it will run in the next week or two.

Lemonade Stand

Skylar had a lemonade stand today and decided to pass out information and sell crazy straws for donations. She raised $10 and gave out many of his business cards with his website information and is hopeful people will check it out and donate.

Rotary Website

www.rotarywaterproject.org

Brett won an itunes card

Brett got a letter in the mail today telling him that his cause raised the most money a few weeks ago on causeshare.com, so they sent him an itunes card for a prize!

Lost emails

From the very beginning correspondence with Brett's prinicpal, I saved every email that I sent and received regarding Lifestraw. Today I found out that they all disappeared when my hard drive failed. I am so upset that Brett will never read all of the wonderful notes that so many people wrote about how proud they were of him and inspired by his actions. His grandparents, his teachers and principals, his aunts and uncles, our friends, some of the Rotarians from CT and FL, the manufacturers of the Lifestraw at Vestergaard Frandsen, people from St. Andrews church. Too many to recreate, but all with the same messages of praise. Even though you will not hear their own words Brett, you really touched people with what you have done. No one is more proud of you than your mom and dad.

Lifestraw

St. Andrew's VBS

Brett spoke to St. Andrew's Church filled with children and their parents about his project and how he got started. They used him as their role model for VBS 2010 and raised $200. Many adults took Brett's card to get more information an came up to me with appreciation for what he is doing.

Stomach Bug

We all were sick this week with a nasty stomach bug that had us dehydrated and thirsty. I was never so aware of how lucky I was as a mother to have such easy access to clean cold water to give to my children. The thought of watching them die a slow and agonizing death in front of my eyes from dirty or lack of clean water was unbearable.

Oprah

sent a letter to oprah today, we'll see...

Brett won a custom badge

Brett won a custom designed badge for being the top fundraiser this week. It has his picture and says causeshare superstar. Very cool!

Ryan's Well

http://www.ryanswell.ca/Took the kids and Aiden to the Guildford Library to see the short film about Ryan's Well. We were the only people there to see it. The foundation was started by a 7 year old trying to earn $70 to over a million dollars and countless lives changed. It was so touching and inspiring. I felt like it was about Brett and saw what an impact he is making already. Made a connection with Salisha who offered to help spread the word about Brett's project. And the woman from the library told us to hang a poster there.

Ellen

Just submitted Brett's story to the Ellen show. They are taking stories from kids under 11 with any kind of talent. I had been thinking about it, but my cousin Rene suggested I do it this morning, so I did.