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Normal Moments, Inc
...helping parents of children with critical illnesses share more normal moments every day.
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Outback Steakhouse Fundraiser
May 16th Normal Moments will be participating in a Fundraiser at Outback Steakhouse.
Click here to fill out at reservation form to join us.
March Maidness '09 March
Maidness has begun again. House cleaning is our number one most
requested service. Help us to help parents by donating a cleaning
service. Last year we found our wonderful Cleaning Ladies 911 who
generously sponsored our Little Things in Life Walk, as well as became
one of our regular cleaning services.
Click here to fill out our March Maidness Form.
Normal Moments on WGN's Chicago's Very Own
Click here to see Normal Moments covered on WGN on the Saturday, December 27 Chicago's Very Own broadcast
"What we give is the gift of time," Normal Moments founder Patricia Fragen said.
Fragen created normal moments after her daughter Melissa died last year from cancer.
The family received a lot of help from their friend David Orlicz during the time they were in and out of hospitals.
Orlicz took care of the family's dogs and other household tasks.
"When you are going through something like this," Fragen explained, "the best things you can have are normal moments."
Before Patricia's daughter passed away she came up with the idea for
the organization. She said their family knew Melissa was going to die
and that it was an emotional conversation.
"It was Melissa's idea," explained Orlicz, the friend who inspired the
start of Normal Moments, "that everyone should have a 'David,' that
everyone has someone who can step in and be that family member who
maybe can't be there."
Normal Moments has also helped the Perez family. Lindsey Perez has
three daughters, including a set of twins, Elana and Vanessa. The girls
were born seven months ago, but Elana's organs were extremely
compromised. She's been in the hospital since birth.
Normal Moments has provided volunteer services such as professionally cooked meals, cleaning, pet and lawn care for the family.
"Nobody expects to be in this situation," mother Lindsay Perez said,
"and to have these complete strangers really step up to help us out --
it's been pretty amazing. It's really allowed us to spend more free
time as a family."
Normal Moments currently serves about 70 families. If you'd
like to find out more about Normal Moments or get information on how
you can volunteer, visit the Normal Moments website at
www.normalmoments.org or call them at: 630-888-8111
Normal Moments on WGN's Chicago's Very Own
Click here to see Normal Moments covered on WGN on the Saturday, December 27 Chicago's Very Own broadcast
"What we give is the gift of time," Normal Moments founder Patricia Fragen said.
Fragen created normal moments after her daughter Melissa died last year from cancer. The family received a lot of help from their friend David Orlicz during the time they were in and out of hospitals.
Orlicz took care of the family's dogs and other household tasks.
"When you are going through something like this," Fragen explained, "the best things you can have are normal moments."
Before Patricia's daughter passed away she came up with the idea for the organization. She said their family knew Melissa was going to die and that it was an emotional conversation.
"It was Melissa's idea," explained Orlicz, the friend who inspired the start of Normal Moments, "that everyone should have a 'David,' that everyone has someone who can step in and be that family member who maybe can't be there."
Normal Moments has also helped the Perez family. Lindsey Perez has three daughters, including a set of twins, Elana and Vanessa. The girls were born seven months ago, but Elana's organs were extremely compromised. She's been in the hospital since birth.
Normal Moments has provided volunteer services such as professionally cooked meals, cleaning, pet and lawn care for the family.
"Nobody expects to be in this situation," mother Lindsay Perez said, "and to have these complete strangers really step up to help us out -- it's been pretty amazing. It's really allowed us to spend more free time as a family."
Normal Moments currently serves about 70 families. If you'd like to find out more about Normal Moments or get information on how you can volunteer, visit the Normal Moments website at www.normalmoments.org or call them at: 630-888-8111
Normal Moments and Tricia Fragen on Martha Stewart Click here to see Tricia Fragen on the Martha Stewart Show
Tricia Fragen wins fan favorite on Martha Stewart's Dreamers into Doer. ***Thank you to Julie Piccinini for suggesting we apply for the Dreamers into Doers Contest***
Normal Moments in the Daily Hearld
Normal Moments was covered in the Sunday, November 30th edition of the Daily Hearld.
If we're lucky, we can't begin to fathom what Patricia Fragen is talking about.
Unless we've been there, we don't know what life is like when your child has cancer or any other potentially fatal illness. We can't feel the love, the sadness, the stress, the frustration, the exhaustion.
And we can't know the joy of those precious few moments outside the illness when you're just a mom and a kid, sharing a laugh - or even having a fight.
The normal moments.
But when Fragen talks about "normal moments" with parents of critically ill children, they know exactly what the Naperville woman means.
... More on the Daily Hearld website.
CHECK OUT WHO'S GOING TO BE ON THE MARTHA STEWART SHOW!
Patricia Fragen and Normal Moments are currently featured on the Martha Stewart website and will be on the November 12th airing of MARTHA on NBC for their annual Dreamers into Doers contest.
For more on the contest and to VOTE FOR NORMAL MOMENTS, register and vote once every 24 hours through November 18th.
Please make sure to look for the confirming email that will be sent to you upon registration. You must click through that email before you can vote. It occassionally lands in a spam folder, so watch carefully.
Normal Moments was the beneficiary of "Eat, Drink and Be Scary - For Charity!" hosted by the Betterment Group.
Thanks to those of you who joined the Foundation for Community Betterment for their Second Annual Halloween Costume Party on October 25th!
"Eat, Drink and Be Scary for Charity" was held at the best Halloween venue in the city: The International Museum of Surgical Science on Lake Shore Drive.
Check out www.communitybetterment.org for more information about the Betterment Group.
Our Event was a success! Stay tuned for next year's event and pictures from this year!
Co-sponsored by Normal Moments and Cleaning Ladies 911
a community walk to raise money and awareness for families in need
Saturday, September 27, 2008
From the Chicago Sun-Times
Helping parents of sick children
Act of kindness
January 15, 2008
After being diagnosed with bone cancer, Melissa Fragen spent 20 months in and out of hospitals.
Her single mom, Patricia Fragen, was at her side the entire time. When Melissa spent 30 days in the ICU at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Patricia was out of the hospital a total of just nine hours.
A friend walked her dogs, watered her plants and picked up her mail.
Melissa died last April. In her memory, Patricia has started a not-for-profit group to do similar favors for other families. Volunteers will do non-baby-sitting chores, such as mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, shoveling the sidewalk, picking up meals, feeding the cat.
The organization's slogan is "helping parents of children with critical illnesses share more normal moments every day."
For more information, go online to www.normalmoments.org.
“Helping parents of sick children.”Act of Kindness. Chicago Sun-Times. January 15, 2008. Sun-Times News Group. January 15, 2008.
***Correction to the article: While we do not actually deliver meals, we do provide “meal accounts” at the restaurant (delivery or pick-up) of a Family’s choice.***
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Vote for us in the Chase Community Giveaway on Facebook! Chase is donating $5 million to local charities and your vote helps decide where it goes!
 An easy way to help Normal Moments is through a new Yahoo!-powered search engine and online shopping mall called GoodSearch. GoodSearch will make a donation to Normal Moments every time you search the internet and every time you purchase something at one of their partner merchants. Currently available merchants include Target, Gap, ebay, Macy’s, BestBuy, Barnes & Noble and hundreds more! There is no additional cost to you — the money comes from the advertisers and the stores. When you shop online, start with GoodSearch!
The more people who use this site, the more money will go to those in need. So please spread the word to your friends and family.
Here are the web sites — http://www.goodsearch.com and http://www.goodshop.com. You can also read about GoodSearch in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal.
Engraved Bag Tags
Help raise funds for Normal Moments while find a special gift for
friends, family, or businesses. Engraved Bag Tags™ specializes in the
creation of high-quality acrylic engraved bag tags using radiant
fluorescent acrylic. The personalized engraved bag tags are available
in six distinctive fluorescent colors and are ideal for sports bag,
band instruments, laptop cases, briefcases, and luggage of all shapes
and sizes. Choose from a wide variety of engravable sports and activity
icons found on the home page under the "Engravable Icons" header.
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