Nesting/Jenny's Quest

It's another cold day with a chance of rain. We had a tantalizing glimpse of the sun yesterday, but it was just a tease. It's o.k., though. In a few months it will be a bazillion degrees in the Garage of Doom, and I'll be sweating out my body weight at the rate of once per hour.

Today, I'll be working on a couple of sculptural pieces, then it's off to a meeting with the teachers of the local high school to see if we can collect more money for the Art Department this year.

Speaking of collecting money, I'd like to turn you all on to a charity here in our country that is pretty close to my heart. It's called "Jenny's Quest."

Those of you  who have been reading my blog from the beginning may be aware that Mr. ShellHawk and I have some good friends who lost their daughter and only child to cancer. The cancer itself was a strange one I had never heard of-pediatric brain stem cancer. This particular cancer, as I understand it, remains a death sentence for the children who get it. After Jenny was diagnosed, the doctor regretfully told her parents that Jenny would have only one year left. Jenny passed one year later, almost to the day.

At the time Jenny and her family were battling this horrific disease, Mr. ShellHawk and I had just moved to Northern California. Mr. ShellHawk had known Jenny's dad through his work, and had known Jenny off and on since 2002. I didn't meet Jenny or her family until a few months before her passing, and I didn't want to intrude on the last months her family would have her around, so I visited only when invited, and sent good thoughts their way. That was all I felt I could do at the time. Now, I can make people aware of the situation and hopefully encourage them to help.

Jenny was a miracle child. A result of fertility treatments, Jenny grew to be an amazing old soul in a little girl's body. Like her parents, she did not easily suffer fools, she was creative, and she was wicked smart. When she passed, Mr. ShellHawk and I both felt her parents' grief; we, too had been through infertility treatments for years, though we weren't fortunate enough to have success. We still speak often about how hard it must be for them to have lost Jenny.

Anyway, soon after Jenny passed, her mother talked to me about the initial idea of Jenny's Quest. I have to say I really admire her (and her husband's) bravery and selflessness in starting such an ambitious charity project. I'll let it speak for itself-click here for their goals for their amazing outreach program.

I'll be putting a permanent link on this blog (and my future one, whenever I get around to moving it) to the Jenny's Quest donation page. If you can send them a donation of any size, you'll be helping families deal with this deadly disease.

Thanks, Guys.