Why we do this
We lost our daughter in June of 2006, June 16th to be exact. It was a freak accident. It was truly the worst day of my entire life.
We mourn her every day. We fortunately have 2 other children, but we all still miss Ashley every day. I had to find a way to celebrate her instead of mourning her every day. She turned 16 and then we lost her the day before her big 16th birthday party bash. She wanted to work with children when she graduated.
So that part was easy, ANT’s Army had to do something with children. So I started checking around with different people I knew who either had small children or disabled children. I was trying to find out who we could help and how.
A friend of mine is a supervisor at Social Services. I started to ask her different questions. She said we could do one of 3 different things. So the more questions I asked, the more things she thought of. She then put me in touch with the social worker who works with all of these fantastic kids. After about 1,000 emails (she might say there a few more than that), and after my 10 million questions, we started with the Christmas gifts. Then we thought of the Easter Baskets. I had a Sip & Paint fundraiser with the same lady and she said “let’s have the kids paint”. I said AWESOME!!!
ANT’s Army began. I then spoke with a marvelous and wonderful tax lady who steered me in the right direction. She also answered all of my questions, and continues to answer them all year long, year after year!!! She also helps guide me anytime I need it. She is just amazing and fantastic and I could NEVER have done this without her. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
We mourn her every day. We fortunately have 2 other children, but we all still miss Ashley every day. I had to find a way to celebrate her instead of mourning her every day. She turned 16 and then we lost her the day before her big 16th birthday party bash. She wanted to work with children when she graduated.
So that part was easy, ANT’s Army had to do something with children. So I started checking around with different people I knew who either had small children or disabled children. I was trying to find out who we could help and how.
A friend of mine is a supervisor at Social Services. I started to ask her different questions. She said we could do one of 3 different things. So the more questions I asked, the more things she thought of. She then put me in touch with the social worker who works with all of these fantastic kids. After about 1,000 emails (she might say there a few more than that), and after my 10 million questions, we started with the Christmas gifts. Then we thought of the Easter Baskets. I had a Sip & Paint fundraiser with the same lady and she said “let’s have the kids paint”. I said AWESOME!!!
ANT’s Army began. I then spoke with a marvelous and wonderful tax lady who steered me in the right direction. She also answered all of my questions, and continues to answer them all year long, year after year!!! She also helps guide me anytime I need it. She is just amazing and fantastic and I could NEVER have done this without her. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.