February 24 - Dear Nicholas Sparks

Dear Mr. Sparks,

This year we decided not to call April 19th, the "International Day of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness" because raising awareness is only half the battle.

In years past we have done great things like get proclamations and Senate Resolutions, marched in major cities, fundraised for our charity and for hospitals and 100's of families have joined in.  We continue to do those things this year but we changed the name to "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Action Day" to encourage people to not just talk about CDH and post on social media, but to get off-line, go out and actively join in the fight against CDH.  Sure our families are already active in the fight because of what their children go through every single day - but the cause needs us all to get up and fight together if we ever have any chance of stopping this monster birth defect.

My initial vote was to name it "Get off your a$$ and off of Facebook and actually help these babies Day" but that went over like a lead balloon and I was outvoted.  That is a joke.  :)    But that's exactly what we need to do because posting on Facebook to our "friends" who already know about CDH is not enough.   We need to work harder, put ourselves out there, get up and actively fight for all these children.

And it's working!   So many people are participating this year and we are so excited to do so much more for these children! 

We could do even more with a great celebrity spokesperson like you giving these children a louder voice.   We hope these letters touch your heart and you consider doing so.

Sincerely,
Dawn Torrence Williamson
CDH Mom with a Sense of Humor