Monday July 12th.
Meg and I are going to walk down to 10th St. at The Wall on Monday evening, 6:07pm, and we’re going to honor our baby girl. It would be so awesome if we were surrounded by our family and friends because I’m sure that we’re going to need to share some hugs, shed a few tears, and throw Molly a shaka or two. Please join us at The Wall on Monday as we would love to have ya’ll join us to help Meg and I celebrate Molly.
Surviving 365 days without Molly – you can imagine how difficult the journey has been this past year for our family but we’ve managed to battle through the pain. Without the continued emotional support that Meg and I are still receiving from our community, our friends, and our family…we would be devastated. That has not been the case because we’re surrounded by love, we’re being showered with emotional support, and we’re living. We are living. We are happy. But we carry the constant pain of having lost a child to cancer. The sadness is at times overwhelming, but we’ve come to “live with the suck.” That is how Meg and I describe our feelings to each other. We are learning to live with the suck, and I honestly cannot imagine how we could possibly do this without support.
Support: I walked out of the water the other day from surfing and I ran into a friend who I haven’t seen for a long, long time and he gave me a hug and we talked a bit about Molly. Our good friend, Magi Wilson, just sent us a check for $200 that her son, Mike, raised for the Molly Fund with his lemonade stand. There have been a handful of kids that have given us money that they raised with their lemonade stands. Some of these kids were Molly’s pals, but some of these kids were strangers that heard about Molly and they just wanted to help. How beautiful. This journey has been painful but filled with so much joy at the same time. Helping other folks does make you feel good. The Molly Fund is doing a lot of good, we’re helping a handful of families that have children battling cancer, and we’re receiving a lot support from folks that want to help us raise money for the Molly Fund.
On July 26th, Ralph Fatello is going to begin his year long quest to “Catch a Wave for Molly.” Ralph is going to catch a wave, every single day for the next year, in order to raise money for the Molly Fund. Please check Ralph’s website, www.ralphspic.com, for the full story but this event is incredible. Folks will be able to donate money to the Molly Fund in honor of a loved one and their name will be added to a surfboard that we’ll have on display. A lot of us are passionate about surfing, we would love an opportunity to surf every single day for 365 days strait, but how many of us would paddle out when it’s ankle high in January, the snow is blowing sideways, and it’s -15 degrees outside. Not me. Ralph is a true warrior and a beautiful human being for lending his incredible support for the Molly Fund.
Carl and Jessica Wallin will be in Wrightsville Beach, NC next weekend selling the new Molly tees, bracelets, and stickers at the Reef/Sweetwater Pro surf contest. Carl’s company, Action Sports Now, is one of the title sponsors and Carl wanted to lend support in raising money for the Molly Fund. It is our goal to be able to use the proceeds to help a local family in NC. Hugs and high fives to Carl and Jessica, and thanks to Heath and Jessica Lewis for rallying to help sling some Molly swag as well.
Celebrate Molly. We had a big ol’ party last year on Molly’s birthday – August 22nd. Please save the date again this year because we’re going to have a beach party/Molly Fund Surf Celebration ….”The Molly”….at The Wall on August 22nd. The beach party will be at Bicentennial Park (on the north end of North Beach) and there will be a surf contest going on at the same time. A surf celebration!!! Good food, great live music, and fun surf. Molly loved a good party!
Surf contests are not for everyone, I realize this, so I decided that in order for all of my friends to get involved in this event then I needed to format the contest a little differently. Contestants will not be allowed to use their own boards. We will supply the boards and we’ll run five people in a heat. Before the start of the heat, the contestants will reach into a hat and pull a slip of paper out that will have the name of the board that they’ll have to surf in their heat. You may have to ride a 12ft. Skip Fry longboard, a 5’6 Steve Lis fish, or one of Steve O’Hara’s legendary “Freak” boards. WAIT! If you’re bummed about having to ride an 8 ft. BZ softie, then you can pay $20 and pick another board from a 10 board quiver that will be available for those that want to adjust their board pick. Pretty rad! Now keep in mind that “The Molly” Surf Celebration is a FUN-raiser and we need to raise money for the Molly Fund. I will keep ya’ll posted with more details in the coming weeks on the website, and all local surf shops will have posters and info of the event. Please join us on August 22nd for The Molly Surf Celebration and help us help others. It feels good to help….
The Boston Bruins Alumni vs. The Surfers hockey game that we held in March raised over $30,000. We wouldn’t have been able to pull off this event without so much support from so many people. Thank you! We have made over $15,000 selling Molly tees, bracelets, and stickers. Both Cinnamon Rainbows and Pioneers are stocking Molly bracelets and stickers, and I can’t even tell you how amazing it is when I see a Molly sticker on someone’s car or surfboard…especially when I don’t personally know that person. How beautiful. The support has been beautiful. Thank you all – bless you all – and I hope to see many of you on the beach with us Monday evening. Shaka, Mol!
With love,
Buck
