We Lost!

It's been a real tough night. We found out tonight that we were not the winners of the Roman Jewelers Dream Wedding. We will still have our dream wedding so don't worry!

We know we are still winners, but still tough for the both of us. On the ride home tonight the car was really quiet. We tried to talk about the things we did that amazed us through the process. From the people we met, new friends, doing things we never thought we could do. It's easy to be disappointed and upset which we will be for a night, but it's really easy to think big and see the difference we are making for the community. This contest made us better people, not that we were so bad when we began:) This contest gave us something special and want us to continue to make a difference.

Thank you everyone for you support. Thank you RVHH for picking us tonight. With out your thanks and support we almost forgot that we did make a difference.

We love you all,

John and Kate

19k/Cell Phone Drive Continuation & Excited for Thursday!

Hi Everyone,

Today, we broke 19,000 dollars raised for Habitat!! Thank you all so much for your ongoing support. Let's keep it up! We are continuing to get cell phones from companies that are still collecting. From what we have turned in already, we are averaging about $2.70/phone which is great! We could not believe that old cell phones could be worth so much while helping the environment.

We cannot wait to see everyone this Thursday night!!

-J&K

Contest Results!!!

Well today we had to turn in our results and we have our fingers crossed. It has been a great adventure and one of the most rewarding things Kate and I have done. Especially with the tight time frame. As many of you know already Kate and I will continue to volunteer for RVHH. We have made so many new friends along the way and found a home within the Habitat. As you all know, the planning for 2nd annual Cakes for a Cause is underway and we hope to have a date in soon. If you are interested in getting involved please let me know as we can never have enough volunteers. As for the cell phone drive, schools continue to collect cell phones and we hope to get a great turn out during each schools spirt week! Our total to date and for the contest today was: $18,773.60.

We still have a long way to go! But at this rate we will get to 100K in about 5 - 6 months. We are still looking for companies to run cell phone drives. Thank you everyone for you support! Please stay tuned. We find out this Thursday about the contest.

We love you all,


John and Kate

5K Day Habitat

Hi Everyone!
John and I went to support Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity to support them in their first annual 5k. John's number was good, mine not so good. However, it was my first race! He ran it in 22 minutes and I ran it i in 32 minutes. It was a great event. Over 200 people showed up to show their support for Habitat. We look forward to participating in next year's 5k!
Good Night,
John and Kate

Sue's Sweet's In For Cakes For A Cause 2!

Sue - Thank you so much for the kind words.

From: Susan Martino info@suesweets.com

To: katewalsh82@gmail.com katewalsh82@gmail.com

Sent: Thu Oct 08 22:07:02 2009

Subject: Hello!

Hi Kate and John!I've been following your blog and am very excited for you both! I know you'll keep everyone posted - I can't wait for the results. Thank you again for contacting me to be in the Cakes for a Cause - I'd love to participate next year too.You both are such a dynamic couple and complement each other perfectly! I'm very happy I got to meet you and feel honored to be a part of your wedding. All the best,

Sue Martino Sue's Sweets

Life Saver / Final Tallying

Thank You Steve from Re:Source. He saved our lives today by donating carpet for tomorrow site dedication for the Bridgewater site. (http://www.rvhabitat.org/events/index.html#Launch)

I now know who my guy is for my flooring needs!

At this point in time, I would like to thank all of blog readers and everyone who has followed our journey. We are now entering the final stretch of the contest. We are gathering our final checks from friends and family and any last minute cell phone collections to be sent to habitat after the contest. I am picking up cell phones from Rutgers Prep tomorrow morning - a big thank you goes out to Tony for his help!

If anyone has any good ideas for Cakes for a Cause 2, please let us know. We plan to meet with Buddy, aka "Cake Boss" after season 2 to speak about the event further.

Stay tuned for our total!

Look For Us This Sunday!

We will be at the Habitat For Humanity 5K. It's not too late to sign up.

http://www.rvhabitat.org/events/index.html#HomeRun

Great Day: Cake For A Cause 2 / Spirit Week Franklin Twp./ Kate's First Order / Reflection

We talked to Carlo's Bakery and it looks like they are going to do an event for us next year!!! Cakes for a Cause was such a great event that many of the people involved wanted to do it next year. Can you believe we might bring Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity to TLC!!!!! Tomorrow we are going to talk to Jerry Frungillo from "Masters of Reception" to see if he will team up with us. Once again I want to say thank you to Jerry for coming to our event this year. We could not have asked for a better host. We feel that Cakes For A Cause can be an event all of Habitat For Humanity can run nationally. Our hope is that by working with both Jerry and Buddy we can spread the word across the nation. Who doesn't like cake?

The cell phone drive will continue! We collected some cell phones from Franklin Township Schools this week and they want to run the cell phone drives during their spirit week at the end of October as they feel they can get more with a friendly competition. We hope to reach out to other schools too so that we can capitalize on spirit week.

On an non-related note, Kate got her first order at her new job. She has worked so hard and in such a short time she closed her first deal. I am so proud of her and I don't want it get lost in the final week. But it's important!!! I love her so much!

A great day for the both of us!

Thank you everyone again for all your help. If it wasn't for you support I don't know how we would get through this. As we approach the final days of the contest we both learned a lot about ourselves, our love for each other, and how through hard times we both can get through anything. At this stage of the game, we have had some time to reflect on the past month as we prepare for the results next week. We thank Roman Jewelers for giving us this opportunity as well as introducing us to Habitat for Humanity. We found a home there and something special that we hope to continue for years to come.

Are hopes are high, we pray as often as we can, but in the end we are all winners.

One Week Left...

Hi All,

John and I are following up with everyone at the event who said they would support us. We are getting last minute donations to our Web site as well as checks, and writing thank you letters to everyone that supported us. All the architects and the people involved would like us to run it again next year. Thanks to Roman Jewelers, we were able to come across Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity. We plan to hold Cakes for a Cause next year as well. We are talking to Cake Boss and Jerry Frungillo of TLC's Masters of Reception. We hope that next year we could have a live show.

To donate, please visit www.firstgiving.com/johnandkate.

Talk to you soon,
Kate

It is Not Too Late to Support Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity!!

Hi Everyone,

It is not too late to help us help Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity!! To do so, please visit our donation site at www.firstgiving.com/johnandkate. You can find a link for this to the right of our main blog site. In an effort to have our friends get involved, we are going to have a party next Saturday - please contact us via the blog for more details!

Good Night,

John & Kate

Final Tallying!

Hi All,

Thank you to everyone who donated used cell phones! A special thank you to Summer at Montclair State University who was able to bring us forty phones this evening from staff members who participated!! Also, thank you to everyone for their last minute checks. We hope to get some more checks and donations in the next week. We are sending out the phones this Monday. Hopefully we will get a good return!!

Talk to you soon,

Kate and John