Update from Grant

As you know, my wife Laura and I worked hard to get this foundation off the ground to begin helping others. Development, however, has been on hold because Laura was re-diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma on Feb. 22, 2010. We decided to temporarily hold off on new projects or accepting contributions until she got well.

However, my wife Laura passed away from cancer this past Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010.

We have always said that we can start small and still do a lot. Like that of my mother Elizabeth Rosenquist, Laura's spirit inspired us all. So it is fitting that the foundation that Laura helped me create will now be called the Liz and Laura Foundation. I will continue on our mission to raise money to help other charities and hopefully begin our own direct involvement creating our very own charitable projects.

I want to share with you the details from the first charitable contribution we made with some of the money raised from our wedding. We helped send our good friend Gerald DelaCruz to Africa with the Hands of Hope mission. Gerald spoke at our wedding and has become a close friend to us and the Hands of Hope missions. While in Africa, the mission visited many orphanages and worked on maintenance and expansion of these orphanages. I plan to join and contribute on the next mission trip back to Africa November 2011.

You can read about Hands of Hope at their website, www.handsofhopemissions.com.

This is only our first contribution to one particular charity that we support. Soon we hope to contribute to other charities and even develop our own projects sponsored by our foundation.

For information about Laura and her Celebration of Life, visit For the Love of Laura here.
You can find her online obituary here.

Thank you for your continued support,
Grant

SO much better than a toaster!

THANK YOU so much to those of you who made a donation to our Foundation, in lieu of a wedding gift, as we requested. We promise that the money will be put to good use.

Watching our foundation grow is much more rewarding than a new toaster, china, wine glasses, etc. could EVER be!

Foundation account opened.

Today we opened our Foundation Account with a $10,000 deposit of our own money. Along with a generous donation of $75 by our friend MaryAnn Jacobson. Thank you very much! OUR FIRST REAL DONATION! Yayyyyyyyyyy!

We really believe in what we are doing and when we get back from our honeymoon we will be ready to take action.

Christmas will be the perfect time to get something accomplished.

Thank you again!

Grant & Laura

Future fundraising dinner plans.

Our plan is to host fundraising dinners on a yearly basis. So far we are thinking either a crab feed, steak and oyster feed, or even a lobster dinner! The dinners will serve as a platform to share what we have accomplished over the year, with the money we have raised, and also as a fundraiser in itself. We will involve the kids in every aspect of our dinners........the planning, set up and clean up, serving food, & putting on a slide show. The kids can talk about what they have done and what they might have learned in the process.

Above all we hope we can help them to cultivate their own self-esteem which is something money cannot buy.

Chapter One.

Our mission for the Elizabeth Rosenquist Foundation will be to enhance the lives of local foster kids and underprivileged kids by sharing positive experiences with them. Backing us, we have a lot of supportive friends and family. There is one friend in particular who has really motivated us to make our "talk"...... reality. This friend is a social worker (as well as a wonderful father of 3) in the county in which we reside. He will be putting us in touch with foster children and their families. Because we have been talking about this for some time now, he has been keeping his eye out for deserving young kids that would be perfect for what we want to do. HOW GREAT IS THAT? Thank you, you know who you are.

After meeting with the kids we will decide what experience might fit them best. Whether it be a sporting event, a trip to SF for the day, a basketball day camp, or even a visit to a nearby aquarium. We would like to start with things that will be both educational and fun for us all. Eventually we would like to do things that allow them to give back. We can organize canned food drives, serve at a local homeless shelter, etc. We have so many ideas. Once we have a good team together, we can accomplish a lot of things. We have so many ideas.

Another long term goal of ours will be to raise funds to help these kids with their future educational costs by having scholarship funds available to them.

Above all, we hope to help them cultivate their own self-esteem which is something that money cannot buy.

Ideas.

Our first couple outtings might be as simple as renting a van, gathering a couple chaperones and heading out to a Giants game by AMTRAK. I will never forget the first time I rode AMTRAK (in fact it wasnt that long ago.) What a fun experience that was. When you step out of your norm by going to a new place or traveling on a new form of transit, it gives you this awesome feeling of independence. Those are the types of things we want to share with these kids. New experiences teach a person about themself as well as this world we live in. Alot of foster kids have experienced enough of the negative things in life........we want to add to the positive. Our hope is that we can create a long lasting relationships with some of the kids. If that doesnt happen, at least they will have a positive memory.....that will last a lifetime.

Its coming together.

We will be getting married this coming November 29th. In lieu of wedding gifts we are asking that our friends and family make a donation to our Foundation. The Elizabeth Rosenquist Foundation will bring more joy than new housewares ever could. Besides, we have everything we "need" (well, we dont have a toaster, but thats ok!)
Soon we will be able to accept donations via Paypal. We will place a payment button in the right margin of our blog to make it extremely easy. Paypal is completely secure and easy to use.

You can also send donations to our mailing address (please make checks payable to the Elizabeth Rosenquist Foundation):

The Elizabeth Rosenquist Foundation
520 Falls Ave
Lodi CA 95240

This foundation has been something we have talked about for almost 3 years now. This is really an exciting time for us.