FLIP + CHING

Presents, Presents, Presents

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Ching under Life.

Donating my copy of The Little Prince to the United Way reading campaign made me realize that I ought to give a copy to my little sister Nickira. So I did. We took turns reading passages to each other until she fell asleep. Not quite the reaction I was hoping for. LOL. Here’s a cute picture of her and Molly…

Other presents we gave away this week are baby shower gifts for a coworker and a couple of friends who are having babies and a wedding present for our friends Jake and Christina. Come back tomorrow for pictures from their wedding last Saturday at Exploration Place. It was a blast!

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Zoobilee 2015

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Ching under Events.

Zoobilee was a lot of fun this year. Except for the first part of the event when I had a massive headache. I would have skipped it altogether except we actually paid for tickets. For the first time ever, in our seven year history of attending.

Brian was drinking Stellas all night and had a great time.

We ran into several people, including Jeff (above). We also knew of others who were there but we didn’t ever run into them. It’s no surprise, though. Thousands of people attend every year.

Local restaurateur Steve Bacci of Gianni Bacci and Taste & See

Brenda and BJ

Me with Shanda and Nykole

I managed a smile for this photo, despite my massive headache.

This is my gregarious and extremely outgoing Leadership Wichita friend, Bill Ramsey, also known as The Bill Guy.

There were so many people at the event that we didn’t run into the Phelpi and the Dills until almost nine o’clock. The only reason that we knew Dills were at the zoo was because we saw their names on the Sveta’s chair massage sign up sheet.

Thank heavens for that chair massage. It helped my headache go away.

Brian and Kristen at the private YPW area

Jay and Becca

Our crazy, loud bunch

Me with my friend Andrea

I’m glad I toughed it out because I did actually start to feel better and my headache went away later in the evening. I wish it would have happened sooner, before all the food was gone, though. I hardly drank or ate anything because I didn’t want to overdo it. By the time I was ready to cut loose, most of the vendors were gone.

On the bright side, Brian and I once again got really good deals from the silent auction. We got one year of pest control treatments every 60 days for $190, which I thought was a good deal. I also got a gift card for a haircut and some Aveda products for just $65. I love silent auctions! We have a few more fundraising events coming up later this year. We’re both looking forward to seeing what bargains can be had in the silent auctions.

BTW, if you are bummed about missing Zoobilee, fear not. There’s another fun eating and drinking fundraising event next weekend on September 26 — Haus of Brews. Click on the link to purchase tickets. Proceeds go to a great cause. We’d love to see you there!

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A Week of Doing Good

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.

It’s that time of year again and we’re doing pledge drives at both of my jobs. At my primary job we have what’s called Your Gift Your Choice. It used to be the United Way campaign but we changed it a few years ago so that employees weren’t limited to donating to just the United Way. Now we have dozens of organizations to choose from which has actually increased engagement and participation. Sometimes we have folks who don’t want to give to United Way but they’re passionate about other causes. The new Your Gift Your Choice format allows us to support those causes via payroll deduction.

Here’s what our participation looks like just a week into the campaign. Amazing!

At my part time side-gig for the Greater Wichita YMCA we have pledge drives for both United Way and the YMCA annual campaign. Since I’m donating to the United Way through my primary job, I didn’t pledge anything on my YMCA paycheck but I’ll be donating almost all of my classes back to the YMCA through the YMCA annual campaign.

Here’s my friend Teresa installing a computer at La Familia Senior and Community Center. We met Dr. Carla Lee, Executive Director of La Familia, last year during our Leadership Wichita community service project. She told our team that she needed help with technology and wanted some computers that work. They had several computers at the center but they weren’t connected. Last week my teammates Teresa, Jason, and I installed computers that were donated by High Touch (Jason’s employer). We spent Wednesday afternoon connecting all of the computer terminals. Jason even got on a ladder and fixed network cable through the ceiling tiles.

High Touch donated CPUs, keyboards, mice, and cables and then we just salvaged the existing monitors that the center already had. The monitors weren’t pretty but they worked just fine.

On Thursday morning several colleagues and I attended the United Way campaign kickoff at Century II. The theme this year is “Readers Become Leaders” and we created about 400 reading kits during the kickoff event.

It’s amazing considering we assembled the reading kits in just 10 minutes.

Some of the books that went into our boxes were previously donated and were already at our table but all of the event attendees were encouraged to bring a copy of their favorite children’s book or books. I didn’t get the invitation to attend until the day before so I didn’t have a chance to go to the store to buy books. I had to give up a copy of my favorite children’s book which I grabbed from the bookshelf in the office.

I was bummed that I had to give up my copy but also felt good that I was donating it to a great cause. I ended up ordering a few more copies of The Little Prince on Amazon. This isn’t the first time that I gave a copy of it away and it probably won’t be the last so I thought I better stock up. One of the copies is earmarked for my little sister. The two books I’ve gotten her for her birthdays have been Dork Diaries books, her favorite series. I’m thinking it’s probably time that I got her a copy of one of my favorites. It’s funny that it took the United Way campaign kickoff to make me think of it. I should have thought of giving her a copy sooner.

Anyway, that pretty much sums up my busy and rewarding week. This week is more of the same — lots of work with volunteering and donating and fundraising sprinkled in.

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Labor Run 2015 and Race to Remember

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Ching under Things to Do.

We had the annual Labor Run for the Treehouse last Monday, September 7, at Sedgwick County Park. Kidzcope Good Grief 5K was going at the Waterfront and then I think there was another run at the park also that same day, which was kind of a bummer. The last couple of years we’ve enjoyed being the only running event on Labor Day.

Participation was down this year but all the important people came to support the Treehouse. The Dills, Aharon, and Alison were all there. Alison even took first in her age range. You can check out the full race results at Oz Endurance.

I know Labor Day weekend is a popular time of year for out of town trips so for my friends who were busy and unable to participate in the run last week, you have another chance to run around Sedgwick County Park for a great cause. The Kansas DUI Impact Center is hosting our second Race to Remember DUI Victims and Survivors event which will be held at Sedgwick County Park on October 17.

If you are unable to run but would like to support the Kansas DUI Impact Center, please consider donating by sponsoring my fundraising effort. Your donation dollars make a difference toward reducing the traumatic effect a drunk driving crash has on victims and their families and increases awareness of the human consequences of drunk driving. Thank you in advance for your generosity and support!

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An Eventful Month with My Little Sister

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Ching under Life.

Here’s what we’ve been up to the last few weeks.

Bowling at the Alley. It was a lot of fun until these two intoxicated guys started bowling next to us. It was fine. Just a little annoying. They kept trying to use our bowling balls. Brian had to keep one from taking his ball. The other guy put Nickira’s ball away so then, when it was her turn, she couldn’t bowl. We finally asked them what they did with her ball and the guy who put it up went back to get it and brought it back for Nickira. I think the only thing that kept them from messing with my bowling ball was that the finger holes were too small for either of them.

Bouncing around at Get Air.

I’d never been on a trampoline before so I was really tentative. Nickira was really fearless. She was doing cartwheels and flips all night long. I wish I had her energy.

BTW, it’s a lot harder to get out of a foam pit than you think.