Sunday, September 05, 2010

A Sparkly Bundle of Happiness

My good friends George & Linda Allen of Spokane, WA belong to a Walleye Club that holds an event called C.A.S.T. where they take disadvantaged kids fishing for a day.
This year it seems they were blessed to have with them this little bundle of perky sunshine in pink. Her name is Kenadie Hansberry, age 2, of Spokane.
It seems that at that early age she's already developed her own sense of style. She also carries it off with an air of confidence that belies her young years. Apparently even the sunglasses appeared magically as they got underway, to complete the look.
Where's the red carpet?
A girl's gotta look good in the photos.
Well, let's go.
Maybe a coy smile for the paparazzi before we cast off.
Stylin'
Discussing group photo arrangement.
The supporting cast.
Three hours of perseverance pays off!
Can we take her home?
One last shot for my fan club.
To see and be around her you'd never know she has a serious allergy problem that affects her esophagus and requires her to be fed from a small bag attached to her chest and connected to a 'g-tube' which permits the nourishment to bypass her esophagus. She can eat only sugar by mouth & carries a bag of marshmallows to nibble on.
Needless to say, her indomitable spirit and extreme cuteness won the day and it seems there were many who wanted to take her home.
The pretty lady with her is her mom.
Until next we meet, if you're a bit down, think of Kenadie and follow her lead.

10 comments:

Kay said...

Oh my goodness! She's such a cutie and she's got quite a burden to live with. She is teaching us all a lesson in dealing life with grace.

George and Linda said...

Thank you Mike. We've done CAST for Kids for about 15 years now. All the kids are special and have their own unique personalities. Kenadie won our hearts with her cuteness which kept us smiling all day long and still does when we think of her. At lunch while we finished up, she came around holding up her shirt showing us her bag was unplugged and announced "Look! I'm done eating!".
CAST stands for Catch A Special Thrill. For most of these kids this is the only chance they get to do this kind of thing a year. The kids think we do it for them but the secret is we do it for us. For more information go to castforkids.org...

Beekeepers Apprentice said...

Kenadie is adorable, and I totally dig those pink mud boots!

Mare said...

What a heartwarming story! God bless her.

Curiously said...

heartwarming, thank you

Miss GMB said...

Beautiful!

Tony McGurk said...

What a cutie. Looks like she had a great day & catching the fish must've made her so happy.

Helene Bergren said...

I love hearing this story. It's neat to see people reaching out to kids!

Helene said...

Love hearing about this event and about people who reach out to such sweet kids.

Anonymous said...

I'm Kenadie's mom Jessica and today I googled her name and found this, it instantly brought tears to my eyes knowing that I have such a special daughter that touches every person she meets. When people ask her if she likes fishing she still tells people about her catching a fish that day and better yet being the only one to catch a fish :)

This was such a great day for us all and we can't wait to be part of it again next year. George and Linda did such a great job putting it all together and picking special people to take us out for the trip.

Thank you for all of the kind words and for reminding me just how special Kenadie is!