Kimmy's Kut-a-Thon!!

         As I walked from the parking lot to Janene's salon...her son Brendon, greeted me 'Hi Dave, are you ready for this?'..."Yep.  How about you?"...'I dunno', Brendon answered nervously...
       It was a perfect day...Janene has worked so hard towards making this a smooth and successful day - and she more than pulled it off, with incredible attention to every detail!  She had 9 stylists ready to handle the crowd (thank you stylists for working on your day off and donating every penny to Kimmy's Foundation!!), she had their stations numbered and tickets to hand out so customer knew where to go (thanks Sandy for helping run the organization of the customers!)...she lined up help to wash hair (thanks Andrea, Bianca and Lupe for washing hair!!)...she had ladies come in to do nails, in case it got busy and people would like to have their nails done while they waited to get a hair cut (thank you Head Over Nails who came over from 7605 e Speedway to help out!)...she had her son Brendon and my son Cody, sweeping up hair, her husband Brad set up, cleaned during the event, etc...she had her mom, Angie, washing and drying towels (and feeding me veggies), she partnered with Kenny at Arizona Pizza (who gave out free slices and a donation to the event, thanks Kenny - oh, and educated me on Fat Tire's new Somersault beer, which was delightful!)  and the Shishkebob house, who gave out gyro samples and gave a donation, too!!  She bought umbrellas to set outside for shade, and set up tables and chairs on her back porch for folks to hang out.  She set up Alisha Peru for live music...Her sister, Andrea, also brought out her lemonade stand, so the kids could contribute, and a lot of lemonade!! They made $63!!

                                    Breanna, Autumn and Antonio wait patiently to sell lemonade!!

Brad and Mario strap down the shade tent for the kids to sell lemonade.

And the first customers through the door...?....The Bunch family!!  Aunt Mary waits with Hunter for her 'do.

                                                     Ami and Ethan prepare for his cut...

                                          Brian explains the style Colton would like.

                                          Mary and Hunter are ready to go!

                                       Well, Hunter isn't too sure, so Andrea entertains her with a lady bug toy!

Amy gets her hair washed, while protesting this picture!

                                    Janene is getting interviewed by channel 4 news while cutting Amy's hair

                                           Anabelle and Jaxson Pearson get the treatment!

Alisha Peru performed live out front!  She is an amazing talent - check her out at alishaperu.com!! Alisha sold CD's and wristbands and contributed to Kimmy's Foundation.  She is a sophmore in high school and very community oriented, like Kim was.

                           The Bunchkins enjoy some refreshing lemonade out front after their cuts.  Tonio spent the entire day out front (about 6 hours!!!) helping sell lemonade.  They made $63.00 for Kimmy's Foundation!

                                Alex, Cody, Tonio, Lexy, and Autumn drink lemondade - Andrea brought this cute little lemonade stand (she bought it at Toys R Us about 10 years ago while I was still managing that store!).

Flashback inside!  And Janene is still working on Amy's hair and getting filmed...talk about multi-tasking!  Seriously, Janene had it dialed in all day long!!  The reported, Jeff Westlake, was the same reporter who interviewed Amy, Alex, Cody and myself during our snow storm a few months ago...he had Alex and Cody bean him with snowballs for the piece! 

Today, he got us on the 5:30 news on ch 4 and it will be shown again at 10:00.

                             Cody's teacher, Mrs. Archuletta, her husband, David and son Aaron came out to support the event!!  She has helped Cody maintain high grades AND a high morale!!

                    Tonio's little buddy, Monsi, is all smiles as she gets her hair done...

                      Meanwhile, David, Manny and I are sampling some of Kenny's finest products next door at Ken's Pub - he makes some of the best pizza in Tucson!!  And I am a tough pizza critic!!!  Here, Manny and I enjoy a new offering by Fat Tire called 'Somersault', while David enjoys a Dos XX.

The afternoon got really slow, so we all started to help the cause by getting hair cuts, too.  Janene perfects Angie's hair...I even got a cut (and Janene actually let me pay!!), Autumn got a cut and her nails done!

                         Oh, here's Autumn getting ready for her cut, Andrea shampoos her hair with Monsi's help!

                                           And Janene turns Autumn into a little princess....

                                             The nails came out beautiful!!

Incredible day!  Janene called later, very excited, to tell me the event had raised just over $2,000 for Kimmy's Foundation!!  She was over prepared for a crowd, handling the initial rush flawlessly, and even though only the first hour was busy, the  people who did come out to help us, dug deep and gave generously!! 

Thank you all who came out to help!!!

Thank you Kenny and everyone at Arizona Pizza/Ken's Pub and everyone at Shishkebob House!!

Thank's Alisha Peru and family for the wonderful music!

Thank you everyone who worked the event, Lupe, Bianca, Angie, Andrea, Sandy, Brendon, the Lemonade Stand Kids (Lexy, Autumn, Breanna, Tonio, Monsi, Cody), The Perrini's.

And thank you to Janene, who thought of, planned and executed this great event, her husband, Brad, who worked so hard and to all of the stylists who contributed their day!!

                On the way home, I had some stow-a-ways, Monsi and Alyssa Perrini...we were parched, so stopped by Circle K.  Field trip!  I let the lady at the counter know that we were on a field trip to discuss beverage economics: how any size drink is only .79 cents at Circle K!  I could tell she was debating wether or not to call the men in the white coats or just decide to go along with it...she decided to ask what the occaison was...so I pretty much told her, verbatim, what I just told you all...so she did not make the call to have me comitted...which was nice.  The Perrini's and Barrios' brough Subway over for the kids to enjoy and to celebrate the successful day!
    The bambini were tired when we just went out to say goodnight just now...but they want to make it to see the news at 10:00...they enjoyed being a part of Janene's wonderful event, for their Mama...and appreciated the work everyone did...and are excited for the people who will be helped by the money raised.  I know we will all be dreaming about our day tonight... : )
       Love,
            Dave
"God loves a cheerful giver" Corinthians 9:7     And we had them out at Janene's today!!!