- Our children
- Short CHD Awareness
- Swift Creek Middle School
Special thanks to Swift Creek interact club for continuing to support Mended Little Hearts of CVA! This is their annual carebag drive. We LOVE the fact that kids help kids!
- Mended Hearts Christmas dinner
Special thanks to Mended Hearts for putting the wonderful event together every year, and including us "Little" hearts. Mended Hearts really does have the "biggest" hearts ever!!
- Thanksgiving and carebag party
Happy Thanksgiving! We were excited and honored that Hanover Junior Women's Club provided a WONDERFUL dinner for us! What a kind and generous gift!! Thank you Lacy for making this happen!
After we stuffed ourselves, we moved on to stuffing carebags for families in the hospital during the holiday season.
- MLH Pumpkin Patch 2010
- Mended Little Hearts National Convention
2010 Bloomington, Minnesota
- Awareness Party: Strike Out CHD
- Lewis Ginter 2009
- Mended "Big" Hearts Holiday Dinner
Mended Little Hearts was blessed to be invited once again to the annual Mended Hearts Holiday Dinner. Mended "Big" Hearts puts on this wonderful dinner every year, and Santa always comes out for the kids. The Mended "Big" Hearts loves watching the smiles and laughter that our "little" hearts bring to this special occasion.
- Thanksgiving Feast and Carebag Party
Happy Thanksgiving! This was our Second Annual MLH Thanksgiving Celebration and Carebag Party. Just like last year, we'll provided the main dishes and the drinks, but asked that everyone bring a side or a dessert.
After we've finished stuffing ourselves, we moved onto stuffing carebags for families in the hospital during the holiday season. This year's celebration was so much fun!
- Ashland Berry Farm--Pumpkin Patch
- Mended Hearts Ice Cream Social
- Uva Childrens Hospital-Heart Reunion
- golf tourney 2009
- Southern Wms Show 2009
- 2009-03-13 Swift Creek Carebags
A special thanks goes out to Cathy Titus and Jennifer Berarda, co-sponsors of Swift Creek Middle School Interact Club in Midlothian, Virginia. They really wanted to help Mended Little Hearts create and put care bags together for the heart children that go to the hospital. Swift Creek Interact club is service club filled with 6-8th graders who love to volunteer their time and energy! They have been working long and hard since August 2008, and they had an overwhelming response. The Club was able to make 40 carebags!! In addition, there is a huge amount of items left over which will help MLH make even more carebags, in the future. This is a prime example of "children helping children". We, MLH, have been so overwhelmed by this generous gift!
Thanks you very much!
- January Meeting 2009
Mended Little Hearts first meeting of the new year. Jodi Lemacks, one of the founders and our national MLH coordinator, was our speaker. Jodi spoke abut how her story led to the start of MLH of Central Va, what is going on nationally, and etc. 0Lastly, the attending families had a chance to share there on stories.
- Mended Hearts X-mas party
Special thanks to Mended "Big" Hearts for making Christmas 2008 special for our "little" hearts. Mended Hearts truly has the BIGGEST of hearts!
- 2008-10-25 AHA Heart Walk
Innsbrook heart walkers step up to healthy lifestyles
By WESLEY P. HESTER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Richmond Times Oct 26, 2008
Bobby Coleman was at the front of a pack of 5,000 finishing up a rainy 3-mile walk through Innsbrook yesterday morning. He did it in about a half-hour. Not bad for a guy who underwent sixtuple-bypass surgery in June.
"This feels great," Coleman said of the Start! Richmond Heart Walk, an annual event led by the American Heart Association.
"One of my goals after surgery was to get out moving around and playing some golf by the end of the year," said Coleman, 52, of Richmond. "I played nine holes yesterday."
This is the first year the Heart Walk has been held at Innsbrook, with the course looping on trails around the lake and back to the Pavilion. The event is aimed at raising funds and awareness to fight heart disease and stroke research.
"It's also a celebration of the lifestyle changes people have made over the last year to stay healthy," said Michelle Nostheide, a marketing director with the American Heart Association.
Nostheide said the day's goal was to raise $850,000.
Jodi Lemacks and Karen Ward spent the day working the booth for Mended Little Hearts, a support group for families of children with heart defects.
Lemacks has a 5-year-old son, Josh, who is missing a left ventricle, and Ward has a 2-year-old daughter, Jameson, with the same condition.
Neither can be cured, Lemacks said, but operations can prolong their lives.
"We have support groups full of kids who've had more surgeries than you want to think about and parents who are a mess," Lemacks said.
"But there's a lot of healing and understanding in finding that there are other people out there who get it."
After the walk, survivors mingled with sponsors and friends, reading stories from a tribute wall for those lost.
- MLH Chesterfield Berry Farm Pumpkin Patch 2008
- Pool Party 8-24
For those of us willing to brave a potential rainy day, the weather turned in our favor. The sun ended up shiny and warm. Perfect for swimming, splashing, diving, eating and playing.
We had a lot of fun in the sun!!
- Golf Tourney 2008
- Richmond Metro Zoo 2008
What a fun day at the zoo! This was our annual MLH picnic with an added bonus...animals. We all enjoyed spending time eating, chatting, getting to know each other, and watching the kids playing. A great day!!
- MLH Convention in Hartfort
Bringing Heart to Hartford
- Lets make some carebags!!
Carebags
A substantial amount of our proceeds go towards making and shipping carebags for families who have to be away from home in order for their child to get the life saving surgery they need. Just recently, MLH of CVA had a carebag supply drive and so many families and friends helped make it successful! We were able to fill 22 hand painted carebags--which means--22 families received carebags when their child(ren) were in the hospital.
Thank you all!
These were some of the donated contents and/or bags.
* non-expiring phone cards
* tote bags
* disposable cameras
* soap
* toothbrushes
* shampoo
* conditioner
* hairbrushes, combs
* journals, pens
* gas cards
* AA and AAA batteries
* deodorant
* pre-paid credit cards
* notepads
* magazines
- Southern Wms Show 2008
What a great awareness event! The Southern Wms Show had approx 50,000 people come through. So many people were interested in what MLH was, and what they could do to help. We also got to meet other families that did not know we were here, and that they were not alone.
- General Assembly, Lobby Day 2008
General Assembly, Lobby Day 2008
Mended Little Hearts of CVA went to the General Assembly with the AHA.
MLH went to talk about HB318-- which is a proposed amendment to reverse balance billing (in VA). We sadly learned this bill is stuck in committee and will not pass this year.
On a positive note, we were able to meet some people that may be able to helps us in the future.
- CHD Awareness 2008
- CHD Family Fun Night/awareness night
- Lewis Ginter Botantical Gardens-Festival of Lights 2007
What a magical evening!!! The children had such a wonderful time!! There was story-time in the Library, a Santa sighting, fantastic lights everywhere, trains, light mazes, and so much more! This special event was made possible, by the generosity of Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. Thank you Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for making our holiday so special!!
- Heart Walk 2007
Heart Walk 2007
- Pumpkin Patch 2007
Mended Little Hearts trip to Chesterfield Berry Farm on October 21, 2007. It was a great time for us to all get together!!
- Poker Run