Wonderful Friends

And A Caring Town

To the Editor:

I wanted to take this opportunity to send a huge thank you to the wonderful and helpful Relay For Life Committee. I am sure everyone in town was aware of the inspirational event that took place on June 11 and 12. This is my second year participating in such an emotional event that raised money for the American Cancer Society. There were about 90 teams involved and my team, the ,Sandy Hook Crusaders, deserve a round of applause for the hard work and dedication that was displayed by everyone. Our Co-captain Joann Hetzer and all the Crusader kids put their hearts out there fundraising, and coming up with ideas to make this a success, raising in excess of $6,900.

A special thanks goes out to our sponsor, Sandy Hook Liquors.

I am especially writing this letter to say a “special heartfelt thank you” to my son Jacob for his tremendous help with this relay. We were never more proud of Jacob, as he handed over $900 to the ACS. He did not have a goal in mind, he just put forth a lot of hard work and dedication to this cause. He had his own tag sale, typed a letter to the people in our neighborhood asking for bottles and cans, sold pink bracelets, pink M&Ms, and made up three hearty baskets filled with various items and sold raffles. The kids at Reed were very enthusiastic and bought everything Jacob had to sell.

Ms King, a teacher at Reed asked me if there was any inspiration for Jacob doing this. I just said, he is following my lead. Doing a good deed goes a long way and as he watched me put forth the effort in giving and doing for others, he did the same. Jacob is a very kind, compassionate, thoughtful and determined young man, and when he sets his mind to a cause, he is quite successful. It should be more often that we recognize the good deeds that these kids have done for others and set an example for them to follow.

I would like to commend all the adults and kids who took part in this event and donated their time and collected money. Another special thanks to my daughter Amanda and Tyler von Oy for singing at the closing ceremonies. It was again a pleasure to participate in this relay and be involved with such wonderful friends and a town who cares.

Debbie Eventoff, Captain

54 Sugar Lane, Newtown                                          June 15, 2005