Last week I got to kick-off my Living by Giving new year by attending the Bert’s Big Adventure Meet and Greet party.  What is Bert’s Big Adventure you ask? Only one of the coolest adventures I have come across while living here in Atlanta.  It’s the vision of Atlanta radio personality, Bert Weiss and his wife Stacey that takes 13 families on the trip of a lifetime, down to Walt Disney World.   But these aren’t just any lucky families, in fact these are all families who have and continue to face brutal hardships in their everyday lives.  These families were selected because all of them have a child who is terminally or chronically ill.  Bert’s Big Adventure gives them a chance to let go, even if just for five days, at the happiest place on earth.  It also gives them hope and excitement, and most of all it gives them each other.  Though the trip to Disney is the highlight, it is the friendships that are bonded forever by this trip amongst these families that really create the lasting adventure.

I got to meet Dominic, just five-years old and a kidney transplant survivor.  He quickly came in and out of my life: literally. Dominic today doesn’t walk anywhere; he is similar to the Road Runner cartoon, getting from one spot to another by running.  But who can blame the little guy; it wasn’t until Dominic was 4 that he got a chance to run at all.  His mom, Cara, who donated her kidney to her son, is just excited “to see Dominic and his sisters go on all the rides.”  This event and seeing the joy on these families’ faces certainly got me fired up about a year of helping others.  And seeing what Bert and Stacey Weiss, and the entire Bert’s Big Adventure team provides for these families, I’m inspired to see what others are doing in their giving lives too.  

You can learn more about Bert's Big Adventure and the launch of their new magazine Magical Moments on the website: www.bertsbigadventure.org

And here's a great picture of the Alexander family who will be heading to Disney in February! Dominic is in the lower right corner...you can tell they got him to sit just long enough for the photo. 

Photo by Stacey Bode Photography