It’s a cold and wet Saturday and I just got home after dropping by the community-wide bottle drive in support of Lilee-Jean Putt. I can’t put into words how in awe I was as we pulled up and saw the parking lot of the Abbotsford News so full of bottles and cans and volunteers!
Christmas is such a busy time, not to mention an icy cold time, so it was amazing to see how many people, most of whom don’t even know Lilee-Jean, were out sorting thousands upon thousands of bottles and cans. Bottle drives are not exactly a nice and clean fundraiser, and they are a lot of work. That’s why I wanted to write in and try to express just a little bit of the gratitude we all feel towards the city of Abbotsford.
Thank you to all those who brought in their cans etc. Thank you to the businesses who donated refreshments. Thank you to those who helped with advertising. Thank you to Candace and family for getting the drive going. Thank you to those who volunteered on Love for Lilee Day. Thank you to the recycling depot for their offer to match all the donations received. And thank you to all who have shown their love for Lilee and her family through their words of love and encouragement and prayers. Thank you that as a community you have all been so amazing in so many ways.
All this love really keeps us going. We all want to have an impact in our world and to make a difference, and it’s awesome to see how Lilee-Jean’s little life is already doing just that. She has really brought people together and shown us what an amazing place the Fraser Valley is. Plus, because of her, we’ve seen so many huge donations made to Children’s Hospital.
Lilee-Jean turned one last Monday (Dec 5) and it has been an exciting week since then! Part of that excitement came with Nickelback’s announcement of a $50,000 donation to Children’s.
Part of the excitement came as we saw the crazy amount of support that you all put out at the bottle drive.
But the biggest excitement came as we got Lilee-Jean’s MRI results on Friday, and were told that her tumor has shrunk in half after the first two rounds of chemo!
On behalf of Lilee-Jean and all her family, thank you all for your encouragement and prayers.
But please do keep it up.
We love you all!
Carolyn Putt (Lilee-Jean’s aunt)