American Heart Association Start! Heart Walk

Thursday, September 16 was the State workers heart walk. Andrea, the MLH coordinator, and I went down to the state capital building and set up a booth for Mended Little Hearts. We shared pictures and stories of the children in our group and how incredible they are. We met people who had children with congenital heart defects, or knew someone who did, and were able to do some networking. It was a good day and I am glad we were there. These first 4 pictures are from the state workers walk.






On Saturday, September 18, was the main heart walk for everyone. I've been planning on doing this walk for the last year but only started fundraising for it about 2-3 months ago. Mended Little Hearts had a large group of people walking. And, within MLH, we had several team captains with our own teams. For example, our team had 17 people walking that day. My team has raised over $1500 and there are still donations coming in. If you would like to donate, you can still do so! Just contact me and I can let you know how. As a whole, MLH raised over $9000 which is so awesome! Every dollar raised by any of the teams under Mended Little Hearts goes directly to pediatric CHD research. Research like this will help children like Kyler & Caden.

We were joined by some awesome friends and family for the walk. We were planning on having Kyler and Caden both there with us for the walk but unfortunately Caden got really sick that week prior to the walk. He was having fevers as high as 104.6! Greg's mom drove down from Oregon and was planning to do the walk with us. However, since Caden was sick, she graciously offered to stay at home with him so Greg & I could still take Kyler and walk with the rest of our team.

Thank you to the following people who joined me, Greg & Kyler: Natalie, Gail, Heather, Collie, Dick, Joan, JB, Sharon, Lexy, Vanessa, Will, Shirley, Malia, Dimple.

We plan on making this an annual event for our family so if you missed it this year and would like to join us next year, please let me know and I will keep you posted when the time gets closer. :) The walk takes place in William Land Park in Sacramento; a gorgeous place for a 5k walk!


The location for the heart walk

L-R: Malia, Sharon, Lexy, Vanessa, Shirley


I love their tattoos!

Wonderful surgeon, Dr. Teimour Nasirov with me, Greg & Kyler

Pretty much everyone in red in this picture is on our team. Teimour was walking with us for awhile also. :)

Greg & Kyler walking

Our incredible team, we are so thankful to all of you for joining us!
Clockwise starting in back row: Will, Shirley, Heather, Gail, Sharon, Lexy, Kyler, Greg, Carey, Natalie, Dimple, Vanessa, JB, Collie, Malia (Missing: Dick & Joan)

At the finish line!

Shirley, Will & Malia - thanks for joining us!

Sharon, JB, Vanessa & Lexy - you are awesome!

Lexy sporting her new MLH tattoo on her cheek :)

Kyler loving the strawberries offered at one of the booths after the walk

Vanessa & Malia relaxing after the walk

Greg's sister Natalie drove over from Walnut Creek to walk with us

Greg, me and Will all enjoying our mint chocolate chip ice cream cones :0

At home after the walk, we had to have a family photo in our MLH t-shirts since Caden couldn't be at the walk with us