It's been 2 years...

It's been 2 years since Parker was called home, so unexpected. I remember that day as though it was only moments ago. The pain just as strong, the longing to hold him and hear his laugh still sits on the surface. When I am lost in thought, imagines of that day flash before me interupting my day dream. I have a photo of Parker beside my bed that I am able to look at, say goodnight and good morning too. I miss him every moment. I see him in Blake's smile and I am reminded of how lucky I am to be a mom, to be Parkers mom. If someone had told me the day I had Parker that in 4 years, 8 months,14 days and 7 hours he would pass away, I would tell them I can't wait to get to know him and love him so much for those 4 years, 8 months, 14 days and 7 hours. Parker was an amazing person who lived everyday like we all should, as though it's our last.

I miss and love you, Parker. I will never stop trying to bring awareness to window falls. I am honored to be your mom and I am so proud of you!

Update....

So much has happened since the last time I wrote... Last we check in mid April the stop at 4 website had over 23,000 views, Amazing! Now the work really begins. To bring everyone up to speed. State Farm has donated another 10,000 brochures and 5,000 clings that we will use as supporters buy them from the sight. We are hard at work getting the website up and running the way we want it. Things are moving along nicely and we hope to have more cities on the map.
On April 20th, My husband and I were blessed with a healthy baby boy, Blake Owen who is now the newest memeber of the task force.

Kick-Off to our Campaign with Koin 6

Yeasterday was amazing...We started the day at the Molalla Rotary Club held at the Molalla library where the Mayor of Molalla read the Proclamation. Mayor Clarke also challenged all the other communities in Oregon to do the same. There were so many wonderful people that came to show their support and interest in what we are doing.
We than headed over to the Molalla fire station where we followed Todd and Mike to a near by apartment complex where they went door to door talking about this preventable issue and sharing a brochure and cling.
After which we went to Molalla True Value store where they are carrying the window stops in their store. Debbie (the store manager) was wonderful, last week she and a few of her staff went up the The Safety Store and Resourse center at Legacy and spent a few hours learning about all the products so they can better assist their customers.
Eric Taylor from Koin 6 was great. He did a great job gathering as much information as he could. It was a great to work with him.
Over all April 5th, 2011 was a wonderful, emotional day! Good Team!

Molalla True Value

The reader board for Molalla True Value...gearing up for window fall prevention week.

Cannon Beach Gazette

I did a phone interveiw with Erin from the Cannon beach gazette this afternoon and now it's a Top story on http://www.cannonbeachgazette.com/. It's amazing the opportunities we are having with this campaign. Its wonderful!

Life Changing

   The story you are about to read was written by Emily Rojek who is a 7th grader, she wrote this for one of her class papers. Emily knew Parker his whole life and spent so much time with him. In her words this is her story of how she remembers what happened May 23rd, 2009 and the days that followed.

Emily thank you for your strength to re-call how you felt, you are very strong.

   Life Changing

     Two years ago some family friends had a house warming party. The parents name was Ashley, and Shane also their three kids names are Parker, Kyran and Ashley. All the kids were playing upstairs playing in their bedrooms. Then Parker was pushing on the screen window with his hands, and he fell out the window. His mom (Ashley) saw Parker’s shirt when he fell from the window. Ashley called 911. The ambulance came a few minutes later.

    Parker had to be life lifted to Emanuel hospital because it was faster. When he got to the hospital Ashley and Shane were there waiting for the news about him. A little while later the doctors came out and told her and Shane that he had to be rushed into surgery. They signed the papers for him to be able to go into surgery. Before the surgery Ashley had a chance to hold her son. During Surgery he hadn’t made it. The doctor came into the waiting area and told the mom and dad the bad news; “ I’m sorry he didn’t make it,” the doctor had told them. Once she heard the news she fainted.

     The doctors took the mom in to check if she was okay and she hadn’t damaged anything. A couple days later my mom called my dad while I was with him at REI, she was talking to him for about 10 minutes. I had no clue what she was telling my dad on the phone. Once we finally got into the store I had asked my dad, “What was mom telling you” he didn’t reply and changed the subject. Later that night my parents finally told me what happened and I was devastated.

      A week later on Wednesday there had been a memorial service. At the memorial service, everybody was in bright colors Ashley and Shane didn’t want people in black and white. Before the actual service started there was a room we could go in and see Parker in his casket, he was dressed in his favorite superhero costume from Halloween and he had a hat on. There were toys, letters, flowers and a few other things in the casket. Once the service started songs were sung, people came up and spoke about memories they had about him, and people prayed. After all the songs, praying and speaking it was time to go to the place where he was going to get buried. Once every body was there the kids got in a line and got handed a flower. Each kid went around the casket and layed in his or her flower down, then the adults did the same thing. When every body was done we got handed a blue balloon. If you wanted, we could write a message and attach it to the balloon. On the count of three we all let go of our balloons and watched them float into the sky. People stayed for a little bit looking around the graveyard, but my family went back to the church. When every body was back at the church lunch was served. While eating we watched a slideshow. Around 2:30 PM my family drove home in silence. To this day on his birthday we send balloons up to him.

                                                                       Sincerely,

                                                                          Emily Rojek

Up Date....

Things are moving right along....Meeting with the editor went great, the artticle should be coming out this week. Speaking at city council went wonderful. Everyone seemed to be very supportive. Sandy did a great job with radio Disney and her interview should be airing some time during window fall prevention week and we should have a link from http://www.stopat4.com/. Koin 6 has us on their agenda for Tuesday the 5th. They are coming to Molalla to flim our fire fighters passing out brochures and clings to people in the community, the Hardware store in town who stocks the window stops(being the first retail store in Oregon to do so) and the Mayor of Molalla signing a proclamation to support our campaign and challenge every town in Oregon to follow Molalla's example. This will take place at the Rotary meeting on the 5th at our public library. The Rotary club of Molalla has been wonderful and I am so thankful for their time and service. Sandy and I are doing a radio interview with Handyman Bob on April 2nd. I can't believe how far we have come since the beginning of all of this and I can't wait to see how far we go.

This week....

We are gearing up for window fall prevention week. This week I am meeting with the Molalla pioneer editor and she is writing an article on what the town of Molalla has done to support this fight and also what we as a campaign have accomplished.
Wednesday, Sandy and I with Bob's support are speaking to the city council in Molalla in hopes to get them all on board. Mayor Clarke (Molalla Mayor) has been wonderful and he wants to help anyway he can. We hope to have the town of Molalla be the explain of what we want all towns and cities in Oregon to follow.
Thursday, Sandy will be doing an interview with Radio Disney talking about window fall prevention week.
Wonderful things are happening....Keep up the good work! Parker is proud :)

A good day for our Campaign!!

Today was a good day for our campaign. We had our monthly meeting in Molalla at the fire station and the Mayor of Molalla, Mike Clarke was able to come. He showed great interest in our campaign and we shared how we want Molalla to be the example of what we want all towns and cities to do. I am looking forward to meeting with some of his staff to iron out details for window fall prevention week (April 3rd-9th).

After our meeting I headed down town to the MAC club to meet Sandy, Jan and Adrienne. Sandy and I were guest speakers for IPM ( income property management) Company. We share the CBS video and than I was able to share a little bit about what I hope to gain from this campaign and speaking out. Sandy than went over in more detail about the risks and our goals as a campaign. We had many people ask questions and want to know more and are interested in helping. A few people told me that are heading to the Safety store as soon as they can to buy product.

It's amazing the flood of support from people. This is how we are going to stop window falls getting out there and talking to people. Any chance we get we have to take it. Meeting by meeting. Town by town. City by city. State by state.  We will do this!!

Chamber of Commerce at Mercer Windows

Sandy and I attend Chamber of Commerce at Mercer windows early this morning. We had never been to one before. We were able to set up a table with some information that we passed out. There were 115 people representing all different businesses thoughout the city of Beaverton.
We had the honor of meeting the Mayor of Beaverton and plan to meet with him to see what the city of Beaverton can do. We met some wonderful people that shared their concern for window falls and lend their support. We made some great contacts and hope that they can help us get the word out. Special thanks to Mike for inviting us. Go Team!!

Day at the Capital

Day at the Capital went great! Koin 6 news was there and aired their coverage friday at 5pm and 6pm. The web address I have added is of Emily is a mother who's daugther fell from their 2nd story window a year ago friday. She shares her story and shares the same hope that by speaking out it will help prevent this from happening to another family.
 http://www.koinlocal6.com/content/mediacenter/default.aspx?videoId=19834@koin.web.entriq.net&navCatId=156

A step in the right direction

Our task team had our first 125 brochures and window clings made. They look awesome! Weather willing some of our team will be headed down to Day at the Capital this friday to pass out 100 of them. Very exciting!

Feb. 17, 2011

This blog is set up to help get the word out about window falls. Please keep in mind that I lost my son to a window fall and only hope by sharing my story it can educate others. Preventing it from happening to another family. It has been a long road since that day and we have come a long way. Excited to launch our campaign the first week in April of this year. Check out our website http://www.stopat4.com/ to learn more.