Family Fun Day

On Saturday, June 9 2012, Humpty Dumpty Parent, in association with CAN DO Fitness in Edgewater, hosted a FAMILY FUN DAY event. It was our first event of this kind and we want to start by acknowledging and thanking everyone at CAN DO Fitness for their generous support. CAN DO generously donated the use of their facility for our event and gave so much – from the free 3-month gym membership and gift certificate active wear from their shops, to their deeply discounted $21 for 21 days special, as well as providing two of their most popular classes (SH’BAM and Mind/Body Pilates) and onsite childcare for free. We are humbled and awed by the experience and are truly indebted to CAN DO for their goodwill and steadfast and uncompromising commitment to the event.

We were fortunate to be able to count on the support of GainVille, Appleview Early Learning Center & Preschool, Happy Family-Happy Mama Northern New Jersey and Diego Molina Photography. Leslie, the local representative for HAPPY FAMILY, works with moms groups, businesses and organizations to help educate families about the importance of organic foods and nutrition for babies and toddlers. She brought a fantastic goody bag for the raffle, great little samples for the giveaway bags and set up a table for kids crafts at the event. Hannibal, of GainVille Learning and Training in Rutherford, also committed to the event with their gift of one month’s worth of language immersion to a language class of choice (valued at $120) and as part of the silent auction, Gain Bridges, offered half off their usually valued 8-week language course for adults (valued at $400). GainVille also set up a table with kids activities for our young attendees. We were pleased to have Amanda from the soon-to-be-opened Appleview Early Learning Center & Preschool also come out and support us with her generous donation of one free camp week as well as helping out in the kids entertainment room. Last, and of course never least, our good friend, Diego Molina Photography came to donate a very generous package of a photo shoot valued at $700 for our silent auction. He was also kind enough to document our event with these amazing pictures that do more than my mere words ever could of capturing the wonder and delight in a child’s eyes as he interacts with Bernie from Puppet Party Time or the joy of dancing to Erik Cavagnuolo’s rock-n-roll show for kids and our Mommy friends getting a workout with the SH’BAM class, courtesy of CAN DO. We are extremely grateful to Erik and Josh and Tamra of Puppet Party Time for donating their services to our event. Weekends are a kid entertainers bread and butter days but we are humbled and awed that Erik, Josh and Tamra came through for us and put on such great shows for the kids.

We are greatly appreciative to everyone who donated to our raffle: the 3-month membership courtesy of CAN DO, the 50-minute Swedish massage from Koi Spa, the half off 8-week language course for adults from GainVille, gift certificate from Designer Nursery, the cookie tray by Cookies by Heather, Trader Joe’s gift basket, Happy Family Goody bag, gift card from Baumgart Café and gift card to CAN DO’s Active Wear store.  We are overwhelmingly thankful to our silent auction partners: Photo Shoot from Diego Molina Photography, KidVille in Englewood for their whole semester class of choice, One Camp Week at Appleview Early Learning Center & Preschool in North Bergen and GainVille Language.  Thanks to our friends at Panera Bread for the coffee and our friends at CAN DO for the yummy shakes.

We would like to acknowledge that proceeds of the event will go to The Valerie Fund, which provides families that have a child with cancer or blood disorders, with regional outpatient treatment centers at top pediatric hospitals within an hour’s drive of most of the state’s population, and provide state-of-the-art medical and emotional care in a happy, upbeat, child-centered atmosphere.

The world around us is a very busy place that often times moves in a frenetic pace. Often times it is easy to lose sight of the important things because we are just so busy – trying to meet deadlines, adjusting to ever changing schedules, trying to make ends meet, working long hours. Some days we just don’t know where the day goes to…at least, that is the life of most of us. It was great to have a day devoted to family and fun and we want to send a special “thank you” to all the parents and little ones that came out for our event. We thank you all whole-heartedly and hope to see you all soon.