CHD Awareness Week Alert!

After asking my Twitter follows what topics they'd like to read about, I got some great ideas! Today I want to let you all know about Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Week that is in February. You might be thinking, "Why so early?" Well like my mom always says, "If you plan ahead, you won't have to scramble in the end." So I am letting you all know now so you can get a head start on setting up fundraising events at your school, job and in the community. Starting February 7th and going all the way to Valentine's Day (How appropriate  a holiday that uses a heart as it's symbol!) is the week that CHD Awareness is scheduled for. 

If you or a loved one you know has CHD and want to help raise awareness during CHD Awareness week or any other time, here are some ideas! 

• Buy and wear a CHD T-Shirt, hat, jackets etc. You can buy a shirt from: Mended Little Hearts  - they have groups all over the US so you can find a group and a shirt that is from a state or city near you!
• Buy and wear a Lego Heart Necklace from Mended Little Hearts of Phoenix's website, here. (Pictured below) 

• If you are like me and are in the Phoenix area (Or Arizona in general) you can buy some clothing that raises awareness from: Mended Little Hearts of Phoenix 
• If you cannot buy any of these items, just wear a red t-shirt, jacket or anything else red! 

As for raising money for a CHD group that you'd like to donate to, here are some ideas: 

• Make necklaces or bracelets using red and blue beads that symbolize the hard time CHD hearts can have make un-oxygenation blood oxygenated - and then sell them at child's school, work and other places around the community
• Write a letter to a local business telling your CHD story and ask them donate money to the CHD cause 
• If you have a fundraising event, make a poster board that has pictures of CHD kids who look healthy, CHD kids who don't look healthy and then "normal" healthy kids - and ask the people who pass by if they can tell who has CHD. It's a great way to opening up the conversation that you can't always tell by looking at a person if they have CHD. 
• If you have fundraising event, you could also show X-Rays of what a normal heart looks like vs. a CHD heart - to help show the difference and catch people's eye! 
• Ask your child's school if they could sent out an e-mail to the parents in the school sharing your CHD story with a link to where they can donate money if they are interested in it 

These are just some ideas that you can do when trying to raise awareness and/or money. If any of you have any more ideas that you'd like to share with us, please comment below and share the ideas with everyone. Lets get out there during the week of February 7th to the 14th and raise awareness!

A special thanks to @CHD_UK for giving me the idea! If you are in the UK and have CHD or love someone who has CHD, check them out on Twitter and on their website: www.congenital-heart-defects.co.uk/ 

Hope and Love,

Becca