Our friend Jennifer sent this email to let us know about a wonderful event:
Hi Lara,
I need to introduce you to a young family and the mother in this family named Amanda Hasselkus. Amanda and her husband Ryan have been local residents of South Orange County their whole lives and have chosen Mission Viejo as their home to raise their two children Makayla 5 years old and Sterling 18 months. Ryan is a small business owner of a retail nutrition store on 17th street in Costa Mesa and Amanda stays home with her children and is involved in many local organizations and activities.
Hi Lara,
I need to introduce you to a young family and the mother in this family named Amanda Hasselkus. Amanda and her husband Ryan have been local residents of South Orange County their whole lives and have chosen Mission Viejo as their home to raise their two children Makayla 5 years old and Sterling 18 months. Ryan is a small business owner of a retail nutrition store on 17th street in Costa Mesa and Amanda stays home with her children and is involved in many local organizations and activities.
Among these is the Mission Viejo chapter of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) that meets every other Friday at Mt. of Olives Lutheran Church and the Mission Viejo South chapter of the MOMS Club. MOPS is a non-profit outreach group which supports mothers of young children. Our chapter is in its seventh year and currently has about 50 families involved in the program. MOMS Club (MOMS Offering Moms Support) is an international non-profit organization. The club was founded in 1982 by a stay-at-home mom, named Mary B. James. Today, there are more than 1,950 chapters and over 92,000 members worldwide.
Several weeks ago Amanda was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer. She just had a double mastectomy and will be undergoing aggressive chemotherapy and reconstructive surgery in the coming weeks and months. She is 29 years old.
I don’t have to tell you the personal, emotional, and financial strain that something like this puts on any individual or family. It’s certainly the last thing a young family and young mother like Amanda would ever even consider.
My outreach to you is a simple one. Myself along with many family and friends of Amanda are doing everything we can to help support her through this tough time. One of the biggest things that we can do is help them to cope with the immense medical costs incurred in fighting the cancer so that she can continue to raise her children and be with us for a long time as a great mother, wife, friend, and member of the community.
With this in mind on March 7th at Bridges in Irvine we will hold a Fundraiser/Silent Auction to raise funds to provide help for Amanda, Ryan and their kids in conjunction with our local MOPS chapter and the Mission Viejo MOMS club chapter and Fun Moms from Orange County.
We have GREAT vendors like 'His Kids' Christian clothing and great family silent auction items like Laker tickets, a Newport boat cruise, birthday parties for kids, memberships to gym and dance studios, gift certificates to restaurants. SO MANY people have pulled together for this AMAZING family! We really need help getting people to this event!
Here's Jennifer's email address if you would like more info: jennmcadam@yahoo.com
