Introduction
We have lived in the community of Temecula, CA for the past eight years and Missy is our beautiful, 12 year old daughter. She was diagnosed with Restrictive Cardiomyopathy on August 25, 2004 at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Unfortunately the only treatment for this disease is a heart transplant. She was placed on the National Heart Transplant list on September 29, 2004. She will receive her new heart at UCLA Medical Center. She is currently able to attend school and live at home while waiting for a heart donor. She is still very strong and healthy and her surgery has a ninety-seven percent success rate. Thankfully, we are lucky enough to have good insurance which will cover most of Missy’s expected $1 Million surgery.
Our family has been incredibly blessed by God, our friends and community since the beginning of this journey. We have received so many prayers, phone calls, and letters of encouragement. We have also received very generous gifts of dinner, grocery and gas certificates totaling $1050. Our long-time friends, the Harris Family donated a gift of Molly Maids to us. Also, many Hawks teams, Temecula Valley Soccer Association, Paloma Elementary and Helen Hunt Jackson Elementary have been incredibly generous to our family over the past few months. We have also received an extremely generous donation of a computer by the Flynn Family, for Missy to take with her while we live up at UCLA for the three months following her surgery. Thank you so much Charlotte and Brian! The computer will really help Missy keep in touch with her friend, the rest of the family and to keep up with her schoolwork while we are away. Everyone who has donated to us is so wonderful! We really can’t thank you enough.
Also, we have had some very special people in our lives organize two different fundraisers to help us offset the costs of Missy’s prescription co-pay’s, her medical co-pays and temporary housing for Missy and Aimee for the first three months after surgery. Both were very successful thanks to the hard work of the organizers and the extreme generosity of our community.
The first fundraiser took place on December 11, 2004. Our wonderful friends and neighbors put together a benefit concert at Life Church in Temecula. The Christian band, Believer put on an incredible concert. The topic of organ donation always has been incredibly close to our family, in fact, Aimee has been on the National Bone Marrow Donor List for the past eight years. Because of this and our current situation, Pastor John really gave a moving sermon encouraging everybody to become organ donors. They even had pink organ donor cards for people to take with them so they could sign up to be donors. That meant so very much to us! This fundraiser was unbelievably successful and raised an incredible $6,600 for Missy’s fund. What an unbelievable gift! Thank you to Life Church, Pastor John, Believer, the Hamilton Family, the Hutchison Family, and the Salgado Family for their love and dedication! Also, thank you to everybody who passed out flyers and the people who attended the fundraiser and donated to Missy’s fund. We are so grateful!
On December 26, 2004, our great friends at the Hawks, put on a soccer fundraiser for Missy. They got together all of the “Fallen Legends” of the local coaching community and put on a benefit soccer game. They raffled off a beautiful angel wall hanging made by Tori Spencer and three genuine European soccer jerseys, two of which were actually signed by the players. It was an incredible day. So many friends were there. Missy had so much fun. She felt so special that so many people came together for her. We finished up with a wonderful lunch. Thanks to the hard work of Alex and Tanya Gaitan, Shaun Jackson, George Cameron, and Dan Normand, this incredible fundraiser raised an incredible $3,000 for Missy’s fund. You all mean so much to our family. Thank you for your love! The following corporate sponsors were so very generous to us! Umbro International, Covern, Inc., Del Taco of Lake Elsinore, Ron Richard and Family, Southern California Hydroseed and Hydro Mulch, Caliber Concrete, Harry & Linda Clark, Tori Spencer - Angels by Tori and RKW Associates. We are so blessed to have these friends in our lives.
Our family wants everybody to know how grateful we are to EVERYBODY, friends, family and strangers who has given us their prayers, love, support, gift certificates and who has generously donated to Missy’s fund. We know there are people who donated cash at both fundraisers, and people who have donated anonymously to Missy and our family because Missy’s fund has reached $11,000. Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly who you are so that we may send you Thank you notes. Please know how much we appreciate it and that we truly feel loved by this community. We also want everybody to know that any unused funds will be donated to the American Heart Association at the end of this journey.
Finally, we want to tell our closest friends (you know who you are!) who have been there every single day, taking care of our other three kids and giving us support and love daily, passing out flyers, fielding phone calls, and listening to me cry, THANK YOU!!! WE LOVE YOU AND COULDN’T MAKE IT THROUGH THIS WITHOUT YOU. My very favorite song has always been “Angels among us” and you have truly proven that you are the Angels among us.
Best Regards,
The Von Zup Family
