Walk the Beach for Syd Rocks!

Hey it’s Syd!  It’s so cool that I get to write about Syd Rocks and our upcoming awesome beach event.

I was lucky enough to meet Billy Dec when I was 12 years old.  He was hosting a charity event for Make A Wish and I was there since I was a “wish” child.  This means that I had a life threatening illness and Make a Wish granted me a wish to help me get through the tough medical things I was going through at the time. I will never forget how much Make A Wish did for me and how much I appreciate Billy’s generosity and support for that organization.

When I was diagnosed with Langerhan’s Cell Histiocytosis (LCH for short, a rare blood disease) at the age of 10 years old, I honestly didn’t know how I was going to get through the year of treatment ahead (I was treated with chemotherapy and steroids). I missed a ton of school and felt really down, but I realized that I had the perfect project to occupy my time and also help me gain control of the situation.

During the summers before I got sick,  I had been making necklaces from rocks I found on the beaches of Lake Michigan and selling them to earn some money.  I realized that the I could sell my rock necklaces with the purpose of raising money for research for the disease I had. LCH receives very little government funding for research so every dollar raised really makes a huge difference. So I got busy making and selling my necklaces.  That was 5 years ago. I feel great now and I’m still at it.

Now I have a website www.sydrocks.com and have sold thousands of necklaces. And this summer, we are gearing up for the biggest event we have ever had to benefit our foundation.  It is called Walk the Beach for Syd Rocks 2013.  We are going to have hundreds of friends come to the New Buffalo Michigan public beach on August 17th at 2pm Central Standard Time to walk on the shore and collect rocks to be used for the necklaces. There will be necklaces making, rock contests and some other fun surprises. I can’t wait! it will be a great time. Our goal is to collect 8,000 rocks in one day. People can register online and get sponsored by their friends or people can just donate to the cause if they can’t participate that day.

To check out the website for the event go to www.walkthebeach.sydrocks.com.

Hope to see you on Aug. 17th at the beach!

Thanks,
Syd