The second annual Pink Tea is 2- 5 PM Sun. Aug. 9 @ Wilmington Island Club.

The event features food, drink and fun. You can mingle while visiting booths of various local businesses and organizations. There will also be crafts for kids and face painting etc. Moms are encouraged to bring young children.

Tickets go on sale this Wed. July 15. Click here for locations where you can purchase tickets.
Hale Tea will be serving their “special” teas again this year.

The tea benefits Savannah’s Young Survival Coalition, which serves as a point of contact for young women living with breast cancer. The Young Survival Coalition (YSC) works with survivors, caregivers and the medical,research, advocacy and legislative communities to increase the quality and quantity of life for women diagnosed with breast cancer ages 40 and younger.

If you would like to have your business be a sponsor for the Pink Tea, click here.

Here’s a way to participate in the education of our youth. The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System has partnered with ePals, Inc. to introduce an e-mentoring program called In2Books to 50 3rd-5th grade classrooms this fall.

Adult e-mentors (you) are paired with a 3rd, 4th or 5th grade student (a pen pal) and introduced online. Over the course of the academic year, you and your pen pal will read five books, exchanging emails along the way to discuss the books. (For a quick video demo, check out this blog)

You can be a pen pal without leaving your home or office! Here’s how it works:

1. At the beginning of the school year you’ll be matched with a student and you will exchange “getting to know you” letters via the In2Books website.
2. Your student will select his or her first book, and you’ll be notified by email what book you should read. You can purchase the book or find it at a local library.
3. Next you’ll write an online letter to your student about the book. Pen Pal Place, the In2Books website dedicated to pen pals, will provide you with instruction, tips and examples to get you started.
4. Once the teacher has approved your letter, the student will read it and respond back.
5. The process is then repeated for the next four books.

The program, a pilot for Savannah, fosters reading, writing, and critical thinking skills by connecting engaged mentors with children in the classroom.

Here’s how to sign up to volunteer for a Savannah student:
1. Go here and click on the in2books ICON to begin the registration process. Note: for the safety of students you will be required to complete a background check.
2. Be sure to enter Savannah from the dropdown list when asked for your affiliation on the registration page.
3. The next step takes you to the background check page. Make sure you use the following promotion code SAV469 on the background check page.

From June 8 – June 22, or until funding runs out, you can join the bone marrow donor registry for FREE. It normally costs $52.

Becoming a donor is very easy to do and you may be the ONLY match for someone needing a life saving transplant. Dawn was unable to find a suitable marrow donor in the bone marrow donor registry.

Go to this site here and click “JOIN”.

Need a motivation to do so? Visit this blog about a 28-year-old Charleston, S.C. woman who was unable to find a match and lost her battle with leukemia.

Somehow superparents Amber & Dove McHargue – mom and dad to 2-year-old triplet boys – manage to find time to volunteer.

That includes partaking in the March of Dimes’ March For Babies on April 25 in Daffin Park. The McHargue family got involved in the annual event after their triplet boys were born prematurely two and a half years ago. This will be their third time walking in the fund-raising event.

The McHargues would love to get more people involved whether it be sponsoring them, joining their team and raising money and walking with them or inviting others to start their own team. Click here for more info. on how to get involved.

Triplets Lex, Brody and Collin McHargue were born at 32 weeks gestation – which is 8 weeks early. Lex spent 18 days in the hospital and Brody and Collin spent 19. The triplets – pictured here shortly after birth – all weighed less than 4lbs when they came home.

Fortunately, all three are healthy and advanced for their age. But not all premies are so lucky. Often, preemies are at risk for physical and developmental delays.

The March of Dimes helps give such babies a chance by funding research and providing resources.

“These are babies that can fit their entire wrist through your wedding band,” says Amber. “These babies deserve a chance. The March of Dimes is dedicated, dedicated to improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.”

To sponsor the triplets’ team, click here.

Dianne Humes, a Savannah mother of two, has a rare form of lymphoma and needs a bone marrow match to save her life.

You may be her miracle match.

Dianne’s incredibly supportive friends have organized two bone marrow donor drives:

• 8:30 AM-6 PM, Fri. Feb. 13 in the Eckburg Lobby @ Savannah Christian Preparatory school.

OR

• 10 AM – 6 PM Sat. Feb. 28 @ Vickery’s in Southbridge.

Anyone, age 18-60, who meets the health guidelines, is eligible to donate and could end up being the life-saving match for Dianne.

We know y’all are busy. But donating is cinchy and will take only about 15 minutes. At the drive, you just fill out some paperwork requesting basic information as well as some health info. No needles. No blood. (Read more about donating by clicking here.)  A $25 cost pays for typing of the marrow and is 100-percent tax deductible. You will be given four cotton swabs to swab the inside of your mouth in the cheek areas. The swabs are then placed in a plastic bag and ready to go for typing. Viola.

The information is then confidentially placed on a NATIONAL DONOR registry. If you are a match, then further testing will be required.

There are thousands and thousands of different bone marrow types, says Dianne’s friend Suzanne Smallwood. “This is why it is so critical to get as many people on the list as we possibly can,” says Suzanne. “Our priority is to find a match for Dianne. But our hopes are that we will not only find Dianne’s match, but others as well.”

Once on the registry, you can remove your name at anytime for any reason.

We wish Dianne and her family all the strength in the world to beat this cancer.

(Dianne is pictured here with husband Chris and children Molly and Hayden)

SouthernMamas reader Ginger Heidel emails with a great question.  She’s searching for a regular opportunity to do some volunteer work with her 2-year-old daughter on the two weekdays she has off every week.

The aim is to find something that teaches her daughter to give back to the community, but is kid-friendly and not just a one-day event. Something a toddler might enjoy and be able to assist doing.

We’d love to hear from all you altruistic mamas out there on how you’re teaching your tots the value of volunteering. In the current Savannah Magazine issue, I featured an innovative Savannah 5-year-old who found a creative and fun way to volunteer to help fight illiteracy. Read the article here. But does anyone know of volunteer opportunities that are done weekly and are toddler-friendly?

If so, please either comment below or email anne@southernmamas.com.

If you are pregnant or know someone who is, please check out my column today in the Accent section of the Savannah Morning News to find out how that newborn can help save lives.

Read it by clicking here.

To find out more about Cryobanks International Inc.’s free donation program, click here.

We’ve heard a lot of talk lately about the value of carrying a baby with Down syndrome to term.

One of our sponsors, Bethany from The Polkadot Platypus, and her husband are actually CHOOSING to adopt a little girl from Russia who has Down syndrome. The couple already has two birth children including a daughter with Down syndrome.

Bethany and her husband will be traveling to meet their soon-to-be adopted daughter within the next couple of weeks and will hopefully bring her home soon after that. As you know, adoptions are pricey.

The Web site – The Mom Crowd – is hosting a raffle to raise funds to help with their substantial adoption costs. Each raffle ticket purchased will enter you into a drawing for amazing prizes listed here.

Raffle tickets are $5 each. The more raffle tickets you purchase, the more chances you will have to win.

The raffle ends midnight Wed. Sept. 24. Winners will be announced Fri. Sept. 26. Click here to purchase tickets.

Here’s a chance to wear your summer pinks one last time AND support breast cancer survivors.

Pink Tea “Celebration of Life” will be Sun., Sept. 7, 2-4 pm @ the Wilmington Island Club, 501 Wilmington Island Road.
Tickets are $5 per person and proceeds benefit Young Survival Coalition Volunteers, which is a group that supports young women living with breast cancer.

Ladies of all ages are encouraged to attend and there will even be activities for young girls if you would like to include your daughters.

Purchase tickets by clicking here or call Susan Richardson at 912.897.3933 or srisland@aol.com.

The tea is a casual event. Dress in pink or just your casual attire. There will be informational displays, raffle/silent auction items and refreshments.