Wednesday, January 20, 2010

MN Bloggers Give Back

I have spent all day trying to figure out the words to express last night, to explain the feelings that came as I met so many wonderful people, and gave of myself in a way that I hadn't before.

Last night 40 Minnesota Bloggers came together to meet, and to help children in need.

We met at a local restaurant to meet each other, chat, eat and just be together. There were in depth conversations, tears, laughter and (by me at least) some squeals of delight to meet these amazing bloggers.

While I knew none of them IRL (in real life) we have followed each other, some for years and some only since this meet-up was formed.

Here is me and Trish Van Pilsum of Off Camera with Trish Van Pilsum. Trish is a blogger (an amazing blogger) and one of the local news reporters. She writes some of the most touching, emotional, hilarious posts I have ever read, you MUST check her out.

Here is Samara, Robin and Kim. I squealed when Samara walked in, I won't lie. Then I hugged her. She is my step-mom hero! Plus, she brought me a book. What more could I ask for!


Once we had all had a chance to talk, eat and drink Missy from The Marketing Mama and the organizer of the event, gave a speech thanking us for being there, for giving our time and letting us know the time frame of the evening. I can't tell you enough how amazing Missy is! She organized this entire thing, got us all together and didn't pull any of her hair out! She is uber-fabulous.


After her speech, she let us know that two fabulous companies sent some goodies for us to bring home. Annie's Homegrown, a wonderful organic company and Red Gold Tomatoes.

After that, we headed to Feed My Starving Children, a local charity that packages food for underprivileged children. After a brief orientation we got to packing!



Here is Kim from I Want a Minivan, sealing the fabulous bags of food. She was a dancing machine the entire time we were there. She made me smile constantly.


Each bag can feed a family of 6 for one day, it costs $1.02 a bag, just $.17 per person!


That's me, sealing a bag with a Fox9 camera guy looking on. Did you see the bloggers on the news last night? It was a brief clip, but showed the importance of what we were doing. Huge thanks to Trish for making that happen!


Here is Norma, of Norman's Demesne. He is wonderful and showed his horns with his Vikings Helmet! Norman was one of two brave men that joined us last night.


Here is Amelia, Tiki, Kate, Suzi, Jill and Missy getting bags ready to be packed. Each bag has a label with the contents and nutritional information listed on it.


Here are Darcie and Kim rocking the hairnets!


Here is the entire group of us, all 40 bloggers. It was such a wonderful, amazing, emotional experience that I can't wait to do again. Getting to meet each of these people, to talk to them, to hear their stories is touching in so many ways.


Major thanks to Missy for putting this all together, for letting me be a part of it and letting me lend a hand. Thanks for Darcie for the amazing pictures! And most importantly, thank you to Feed My Starving Children for EVERYTHING that you do and have done. You make such a huge difference in this world, and I can't wait to come back!

Click here is you want to donate to Feed My Starving Children.

Head on over here to see a list of all the posts about the MN Blogger Event!

10 comments:

simplicity said...

Love your post and just realized I have other books I could bring you too. Several stepmom books that authors have sent me. Would you be interested?

darcie said...

It was so great to finally meet you! I feel like we've known each other forever!
What an amazing night - I look forward to doing this again sometime soon!

Heidi said...

Thanks you for doing this! I saw about the event, but live too far out of the area to have gone last night. It looks like there was a great turnout!

LutherLiz said...

It was great to meet you last night! it was wonderful from start to finish.

Melody said...

That is really cool. What an awesome way to give back.

Melissa Angert {All Things Chic} said...

WOW!!! that is amazing!

Marketing Mama said...

Great recap. It was AWESOME to meet you. I think you have enough pics of me in a hairnet, you can stop now.

Seriously, though, thank you so much!

MollyinMinn said...

Fabulous recap and such great photos! It was great to meet you!

Erin said...

Such a great event!!

BlueCastle said...

This is amazing. How wonderful to do something good and get together with other bloggers. Awesome.