My friends and family have been having huge Halloween bashes that have affectionately become known as "EAKFEST", being that our last name is Eak and it's what one might say if they were to have the heck scared out of them! My two daughters loved these parties! Every year, my husband would say, "ok, this is the last one " but, the girls would pout and Daddy would go through with it yet again.
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It all began with a riding lawn mower, a bail of hay and some creative family members. The kids were little and we decided to have a good old fashion Halloween party for them. You know, apple bobbing, donut eating, limbo, etc. The Dads thought it would be fun to put the kids in the utility trailer and drive them around the yard for a hay ride. Next thing you know, some of the adults were jumping out from behind trees and making the kids scream like crazy. The kids loved it!
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As the years rolled by, the scaring got more intense and the parties got a bit larger; we would often have more than 100 people in our yard waiting in line to go on a hay ride! We had dessert contests, costume contests, and all of the usual dances for the kids to do (the Macarena, the Hokey Pokey, etc.)
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In 2006, we had decided that we were passing on our EAKFEST tradition to my cousin and his wife, but that October, my 12 year old daughter was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis....
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening genetic disease that affects the pulmonary and digestive systems causing the body to produce abnormally thick, sticky mucous that clogs the organs. This leads to drug-resistant infections that often damage or destroy the organs making organ transplant a necessity. The median age for survival is 37 years. Naturally, we were devastated by the news. However, our little girl really wanted to have EAKFEST at our house and there wasn't one person who wanted to deny of her anything, so we had it here. It was around that time that I had the thought: I think that these parties are meant to be our way of fighting this disease. We have so many people that look forward to coming, and I'm sure many more would too - we should turn it into a fundraising event!
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This year will be our 9th annual EAKFEST to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Last year was a huge success. We had a crowd of over 1,000 people and raised $15,000! We couldn't have done it without the amazing support of our fabulous volunteers! You won't want to miss EAKFEST 2017, I promise! Please join us in fighting to cure Cystic Fibrosis. Because I love my daughter!
