Forget Me Knot Walk raises $20,000

Guest blog by Joyce McDowell

Special thanks to the City of Norwood all those who helped to make the "Forget-Me-Knot" Walk on May 9th a success! The day started with an opening ceremony around the Flag Pole at the corner of Ashland and Lafayette Avenues facilitated by Jerry Owens of the Veterans group and Mike Arnold singing the national anthem. Then, Mayor Williams issued a proclamation declaring May 9th the Caleb Tate Fuller Foundation's "Forget Me Knot" Walk Day. The Mayor then lead the procession to Floral Ave. in an ATV from Tri County Polaris. The Citizens on Patrol and Norwood Young Professionals then manned the street corners as crossing guards.

Walkers had 1, 5 and 10 mile walking options and received a red bow (Forget-Me-Knot) for each mile walked in honor of Caleb or some other loved one special in their life. At 10 a.m. the carnival opened with Charles Russ of the building department among others braving the dunking booth. There were lots of other games as well with the moon walk, skeeball, tip a troll and lots of other traditional carnival games. At noon we held the memorial balloon launch with music by Nathan and Rachael Mabry followed by a special Mother's Day tribute with red carnations supplied by Greene's Flower Shop. Victor Shull of Pure Energy did a great job as the DJ for the event. We had a cookout lunch with hotdogs, burgers and drinks from Pierre Foods and Meyer Dairy along with a "give and get" opportunity for a lot of great prizes provided by area businesses. The St. Elizabeth Foundation provided face painting for the day.

We are hoping to provide a video synopsis of the day soon on Norwood cable compliments of Oliver Comstock. Darlene Morgan was the winner of the Wii game system with Wii Fit as the result of a donation she gave to a student going door to door. Between funds raised by the children at Cornerstone Christian Academy ($7,800) on their own and the support from family, friends, door to door donations in the community and the support of our local business sponsors, we were blessed to have raised $20,000 as a result of this event.

You can find out more about the event, our sponsors or make a contribution on our website, www.forgetmeknotwalk.com or at any Huntington Bank location.

Thanks again to all those who helped to make the day a success. This year's funds will be used in part to provide scholarships to Cornerstone Christian Academy. We will also be hosting the Mad Cap Puppets at Williams Ave. school on Friday June 19th at 7pm. Then, we will be helping to sponsor the Kids in Action camp at Ashland Ave. Baptist Church from 6 -8 pm June 22-28. Then, we will be hosting Mad Science at 9 a.m. at the Norwood Church of the Nazarene (Smith & Floral) just before their Back to School Bash on August 1st. These events are all free to all kids in the community and we hope everyone will plan on attending. It's not mandatory, but we are asking kids to bring a non perishable food item with them to the event which will then be donated to the Norwood Food Pantry.

Thanks again to everyone for their help and support. We look forward to working with the community and its leaders in helping to meet the needs of our children.

-Joyce McDowell

Click here for more pictures from Forget Me Knot.