“Give your hands to serve and your hearts to love.” – Mother Teresa
On December 5th, 2015, several Life Leadership Members volunteered their time for the Life on Life Initiative through the Children’s Miracle Network to serve at the 13th Annual Research Thank You Party for the UC Davis MIND Institute in California.
The UC Davis MIND Institute (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) is a collaborative international research center committed to the awareness, understanding, prevention, care, and cures of neurodevelopmental disorders. They work with children and young adults ages birth to 22 years old with neurodevelopment disorders such as autism, ADHD, Down Syndrome and others.
The Thank You Party is designed to honor, recognize, and thank both research participants and their families for their dedication and involvement in critical research involving children. The celebration has grown from the first gathering of 200 people in 2003 to last year’s gathering of 1,200. The children vary from minor to severe levels of developmental disabilities. The families work hard all year long participating in clinical and behavioral studies.
This year’s event exceeded 1,300 people with over 150 volunteers supporting all of the activities. The party was a major success and a lot of fun and consisted of bounce houses, climbing walls, train rides, superheroes, craft booths, huge raffle prizes, musicians, food, singing and VIP’s.
“Life Leadership Members volunteered to serve food and beverages during the party. We set up the dining room, served food/beverages, and broke down and cleaned up the dining room. We also interacted with the children and their families throughout the event. Some of us drove almost 2 hours to get there but the distance was well worth it! Everyone had a blast!” – Moira Fitzgerald (Life Leadership Member)
“The children were all so polite and courteous. What a joy to watch their faces light up!” – April Campos (Life Leadership Member)
“I would like to do this again next year.” – Jason Ingram (Life Leadership Member)
“I am a comic fan so I enjoyed seeing all the comic book characters come to life and watching the children interact with them.” – Erwin Villanueva (Life Leadership Member)
Life Leadership is so proud and thankful for everyone who participated in this Life on Life Initiative from Team Concord, under the leadership of George and Jill Guzzardo. Your service and contribution made a difference for a lot of families!
Robby Palmer says
These never cease to amaze me!
Moira says
Robby, no matter how small or big each group, the cumulative efforts of Life Members all over the world is creating a positive ripple effect! #lovelifeleadership
Debbie Spolar says
Great examples of being a force for good. You blessed their lives with your service. Bless your dear hearts. ?
Moira says
Thanks Debbie! We are following in some pretty amazing footsteps; your’s included!
Chris Brady says
Great job gang! Thanks for serving!
CB
Moira says
Thanks Chris! We are humbled to be in the game with all the amazing Life Members out there making a difference.
Moira says
We were so honored to be selected by the UC Mind Institute to participate in the 2015 event and thrilled when they asked us to join them again in 2016! All of us had a blast serving these deserving children and their families. And, I am so proud of the LIFE members who gave with joyful hearts! They made the day beyond special for all. Love these people! #lovelifeleadership
Juliana says
We had an absolute blast!! It was wonderful to see the parents enjoy the time with their children and the children were great! They were excited to see all the super heroes there.
So thankful for Life on Life. I never would have had this opportunity.
#lovelifeleadership
Angelo Cabinian says
I was honored to be part of the Life on Life Initiative and to serve the UC Davis MIND Institute. The family and children had so much fun hanging out with all the super heroes. I had fun too with my team and all the people of the MIND Institute. I am thankful for the opportunity. #LoveLifeLeadersihp
Gabrielle Ingram says
I was so amazed at the manners the children had. When I signed up to serve at am event for children with neurological issues, I unknowingly formulated how it would go in my mind. I was so wrong. It was incredible to see the work of the MIND Institute and parents in action. As for the food service, we were super busy and loved it. More people showed than they had planned for and the organizers were a bit stressed. We had an attitude of “no problem” and it was contagious. The other volunteers assigned to food responded, and jumped into problem solving mode with us. The day ended up going very smooth. When the volunteer coordinator joked that we were now on their call back list, we all joyfully said “no problem”. It was such a blessing to help out!
Erwin Villanueva says
Being the first Life on Life Initiative I was excited to jump in and help. I had no idea the theme of superheroes were decorated everywhere. Reminded me of the Batkid project that San Francisco and the Make a Wish Foundation organized a few years back. But this was done on a whole different level!
Kids were running everywhere with the parents right behind them. So my duty was to serve the parents coffee so they can keep up with their kids. I don’t know but I think our team of 3 served 500+ coffee! We were in a zone and it was fun talking and serving and getting the parents sugared. I would totally do this again. But take more pictures next time!
Erwin Villanueva says
Being the first Life on Life Initiative I was excited to jump in and help. I had no idea the theme of superheroes were decorated everywhere. Reminded me of the Batkid project that San Francisco and the Make a Wish Foundation organized a few years back. But this was done on a whole different level!
Kids were running everywhere with the parents right behind them. So my duty was to serve the parents coffee so they can keep up with their kids. I don’t know but I think our team of 3 served 500+ coffee! We were in a zone and it was fun talking and serving and getting the parents sugared. I would totally do this again. But take more pictures next time! #LoveLifeLeadership
Janice Williams says
What a real joy it was to have participated in this event. Having a chance to witness the smiles on the faces of the children was worth the drive, but being able to help create those smiles was priceless! Loving Life on Life!