Gotta brag a bit here. Hey, it's a mommy blog so every now and then I get to post my own proud news.
My daughter is going to play in LONDON!
But first things first......
In 2015, my 11-year old daughter Peyton raised money for the
Shriner's Hospital for Children. She put
her own money with it and we were able to give $800 dollars to help
children fighting bone disease, spinal
injuries, burns and other diseases that require prosthesis and care at the
Tampa Florida hospital. We toured the hospital and she saw how her dollars
helped create new prosthesis to become legs, arms and hands for children.
In 2016, she decided to sponsor a Compassion International
Child and we chose a 6 year old girl from Thailand. We continue to sponsor her
15 months later and consider her one of our family members. For Peyton, the choice to choose her was
easy. Our sponsor child had been born with polio and needed braces just to
stand.
See, my daughter is an athlete. But when she was born, her
leg was bent and twisted at such an angle we didn't know if she'd ever walk,
much less play soccer. At six months of age, we discovered she also had
torticollis, stemming from being stuck under my rib cage in utero, making one
side of her neck muscles much shorter than the other side. This caused her head
to always stay tilted onto one shoulder.
But
there's good news!
Because of prayer, painful
months of therapy and fine doctors at great Florida hospitals, Peyton was able
to recover completely and now plays soccer competitively. Her birthday was March
1 and she turned 13. Peyton been selected to play on a select squad of 18 girls from
America to travel to the United Kingdom to train and play with other highly
skilled athletes who are part of Next Gen USA.
Next Gen USA's mission is
to inspire, educate and empower
promising young players to reach their full potential on and off the field.
I want this for my daughter. I want her to embrace the
opportunity to play in the UK.
But I also want her to inspire other children; children who may have suffered from birth defects,
burns or other traumatic injuries.
All children should be able to live their lives to their highest
potential. By providing monetary support for artificial limbs and medical
treatment, we can all help more children live life to their fullest.
So here's what we are
trying to do.
I need to raise money so Peyton can go on this trip. It is
expensive to travel from Florida to London to play games over there. Just
getting her passport cost $180. The trip itself is a deal at $2300 dollars plus airfare, so we're talking about $4500
for 9 days... but that includes hotels, games, meals, transportation and
professional coaching and training. But $4500 is a lot of money for us to come
up with in such a short time.
But, like most parents, I don't want her to lose the opportunity to go
on a once-in- a-lifetime experience because
we don't have the money.
So I said yes...
But only if she could help raise the funds. So she's babysitting,
dog-walking, cleaning bathrooms, and washing cars...whatever she can do to earn
cash.
But the deal is, she has to give half
of whatever she earns to a charity. She again chose the children at the Shriner's
Hospital.
So
we are asking selfishly for donations.
Peyton's Congratulatory letter is attached to show this is the real
deal. The trip is scheduled for April 8th- 15th and we hope to raise at least $9000.
While this sounds like a lot, we want to give half to the Shriner's hospital,
only keeping $4,500 to pay for airfare, hotels and meals. Everything in excess ,
and that means every dollar over $4500 will be donated to the Shriner's
Hospital for Children in Tampa and as before, we'll show a video of Peyton
taking the check personally to the hospital and handing to their administrator.
By encouraging my daughter to follow her dreams and not
taking her gifts or health for granted, I feel all of us can be a part of the
bigger picture. Showing compassion and love to all.
Thank you for considering my daughter and the Shriner's Children's
hospital as a worthy cause to support.
My Daughter, Peyton
Fitzherbert when she was born. You can see her foot and leg is twisted at an
unnatural angle. Born March 1, 2004
This is me holding
Peyton wearing one of her neck braces as she strengthens her neck muscles which
were abnormal at birth due to Torticollis.
Peyton at 6 years of age:
Peyton is always striving to be the best. Training with
world cup players, going to the U.S women's national games, and daily training
and practices.
Peyton with some of the Next Gen USA players
meeting the U19 Women's national team.(Second from bottom left).
Help her get back to helping others like she did here in these pictures when we went to Children's Shriner's hospital to donate money. We took a tour of the facility where they make new limbs and it was an incredible experience.
If you want to see the gofund me page- it's here: https://www.gofundme.com/London-to-Limbs
