Stop the Silence

Stop the Silence 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament took place on Saturday, May 21 and May 22, 2011. I was asked by Amanda Avila from Prima Civitas to be the photographer for the event.

I arrived at 10:00AM and after 1300+ pictures and a plethora of memories, I couldn't wait to show off some of the photos and help to do my part in spreading the message of Amaia Edmond's memorial and legacy with everyone.

I was asked to take action pictures of the 3 on 3 tournament, pictures of the vendors and the speakers so that a video compilation could be pieced together and also used for pursuing grants for next year's funding.

Having a seven year old now, it broke my heart to learn that somebody could take such an innocent little life in an act of senseless violence. I felt a lump in my throat as I listened to John Edmond speak to the parents, "hold on to your children, hug them, touch them and love them."

The Mayor of Lansing, Virg Bernero, also participated in the 3 on 3 Stop the Silence Basketball Tournament. I caught him on his way into Sexton High School for two pictures, one that I have since uploaded to my Linked In, Facebook and Twitter accounts and also one for helping out.

Mayor Bernero gave a speech inside and also outside regarding the community coming together and the importance of stopping the silence.

The kids had a lot of activities for them in addition to the basketball games. Raindrop the Clown provided face painting, the City of Lansing brought out an inflatable obstacle course and the City police brought out a puppy who will be a future canine unit dog.

A group of three little boys decided to take on James Walker in a game of 3 on 1 basketball.

We had a decent turn out this year, but we are hoping for an even bigger turnout next year. The Stop the Silence, Keep the Peace will be an annual event. Hope to see you out there next year :)

Playing Hard

On Saturday, April 16, 2011, Dale and I left out of our house around 7:00AM so we could make it to Jonesville and pick up Dylan by 8:30AM. We picked him up and stopped for some breakfast on the fly. We headed back to Dimondale to pick up Mike and Victoria and set out for a fun-filled day in Lansing. First on the agenda was hitting up the Lansing City Market for the Bunny Hop. Big Lug posed with us and a photographer took our picture - she said it will hopefully be up on their website soon :) The kids got to see some animals and had some gelato while me and Mike sampled a couple of Uncle John's wines.

We headed over to Impression 5 to check out Nano Day and take advantage of the free admission. Typically, it would cost us $25 just to get in... so it was a great savings for us.

The very first thing we had to check out was the bubble room and Dylan wanted to stand inside of a bubble. The other two were engrossed and wanted to try - he was the only one of the three to be successful at it though.

We checked out half of the booths that were there before they got hungry. We ended up heading over to the Michigan Brewing Company for lunch. I got my usual - Black Bean Burger on a pretzel bun with sweet potato fries - along with a Diet Coke. After we were done, we headed back over to Impression 5 to finish up the booths and get the patches for the boys. Victoria forgot her little passport thing so she didn't get one.

It was really cool seeing the giant eyeball that was donated by Daphne's work - Vision Care Associates. Dale and Victoria had to pose for me inside it. They seemed to really like the health part of the museum and kept walking around the giant heart and listening to the recorded messages. They also checked out the cow brain and other stuff in formaldehyde. I think their favorite part of the Grossology exhibit was the giant guy drinking a pop and then belching really loud. Mike said it looked a lot like Jeff Dunham's character, Bubba Jay.

On the way out, I had to get their picture inside the giant mouth. There are tons of pictures of me and my friends that my grandmother used to babysit back in the 1980's in the same thing. It was pretty cool to see my kids inside it.

We ended up visiting my grandmother and my mother in Charlotte. My mom hadn't seen Dylan in a while and was glad to have some time with him. It was pretty funny watching Dylan trying on Dale's clothes he'd outgrown. Instead of hand-me-downs we have hand-me-ups from Dale to Dylan. Dylan had a pair of pants on that were basically falling off from him, so we had Dale try them on - they were too big for Dylan and too small for Dale. With Dale being two years younger, you would've thought it would be the other way around.

We headed out towards Coldwater and ate at the Ponderosa down there before we returned Dylan to the Manor. We're making plans to stay down there next weekend and bringing him back to grandma's house to celebrate Easter Sunday with everyone there.