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Bryanna’s Love

The other day, while helping at customer service, I had the chance to meet and talk to Kristena Kitchen whose beautiful daughter, Bryanna, who passed away from a rare form of Leukemia (ETP-ALL) in 2016 when she was only 9 years old.  How does one ever go on from something like that? Though I know that unfortunately many parents have no choice. While I listened to Bryanna’s mom talk about the non-profit she founded, Bryanna’s Love, I watched her two younger children poke around near customer service. Two siblings who are going through the rest of their lives without their older sister.  I felt my heart break at what this family and so many other families go through.

Kristena was looking for ways to get the word out about their upcoming event, Give Kids A Snuggle ~ Family Fun Walk/Run.  The more I heard, the more I knew that our community of garden friends would want to help. So, she will have a table set up at the nursery during our Paper Shredding Event on Saturday, July 28. We are also going to work on having a drop off for new stuffed animals and blankets that the charity gives to children and their families undergoing treatment for childhood cancer.

This first annual event sounds like it is going to be such fun. It will be held at Laurel Lakes/ Granville Gude Park in Laurel, Maryland on September 8th from 9 to 2pm and if it rains they will have it on September 22. There is going to be a diaper dash and toddler tumbles as well as many other family friendly activities which include inflatables, bouncing houses, face painting, music and just plain old fun!

The best way to make a event and a organization like this work is to get the word out. If you have a business, consider what you might be able to do to help in the way of sponsorship.  Even sharing the information about the Family Fun Walk/Run helps more then you ever know. Maybe you can save this date on your calendar and taking part in some way with your friends and family.

by Stephanie Fleming, Behnke’s Vice President

Stephanie Fleming was raised at Behnke’s Nurseries in Beltsville. Her Mom, Sonja, was one of Albert & Rose Behnke’s four children. She was weeding from the moment she could walk and hiding as soon as she was old enough to run, so many weeds, so little time. Although she quickly learned how to pull out a perennial and get taken off of weed pulling duty.

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