Saturday, December 6th was a FANTASTIC day for Springfield THON. Twenty-five Springfielders (that's 5 cars!) drove over two hours to Bernville, PA to visit our beloved THON family, the Colons.
When we got there around noon, Tito answered the door with a smile on his face, "You don't have to knock, c'mon in!" he said. For hours we played around with Victor (who just turned 7) and Xander (recently turned 2). Upon seeing a familiar face, Jackie Rohrbeck (FR Chair), Victor proclaimed: "Let's have a TICKLE FIGHT!!!" As she jumped up to get him, Tito reminded Victor to use the bathroom first –after all, he is only 7.
The Colons showed us around their house and Victor showed members his bedroom, complete with painting of Spongebob Squarepants by Megan, giant cards from Springfield, and of course, his pet hamsters: Tom and Jerry.
We called a local pizza parlor for lunch and Megan came along when we went to pick it up. We got sodas and chips for the team and everyone seemed to really enjoy the delicious cheese and pepperoni pizza. The cheese curls were gone within 2 minutes, next time we’ll get an extra bag. Lunch was probably the only 5 minutes of (relative) peace at the Colon household.
After lunch we played around some more, even Xander can play videogames better than I can! Then came the third best part of family visits (1. being us and 2. being food) - presents! We sent Megan's birthday present (a necklace) and Xander's (a PSU sweatshirt) week's ago, so we decided to bring Victor's (Transformers Playstation 2 game) and the family Christmas presents. Springfield got them the movie Ice Age, 2 Maverick Nerf guns, and a special DVD with pictures of their son Xavier Emmanuel, who passed away in 2006 after a tough battle with AML.
As the trip was coming to a close, I realized how lucky we are to have the Colons as part of our family. They faced the worst tragedy a family can ever imagine, the loss of a child. And through the pain they remain one of the funniest, happiest, busiest families we know. So here's to the Colons!
When we got there around noon, Tito answered the door with a smile on his face, "You don't have to knock, c'mon in!" he said. For hours we played around with Victor (who just turned 7) and Xander (recently turned 2). Upon seeing a familiar face, Jackie Rohrbeck (FR Chair), Victor proclaimed: "Let's have a TICKLE FIGHT!!!" As she jumped up to get him, Tito reminded Victor to use the bathroom first –after all, he is only 7.
The Colons showed us around their house and Victor showed members his bedroom, complete with painting of Spongebob Squarepants by Megan, giant cards from Springfield, and of course, his pet hamsters: Tom and Jerry.
We called a local pizza parlor for lunch and Megan came along when we went to pick it up. We got sodas and chips for the team and everyone seemed to really enjoy the delicious cheese and pepperoni pizza. The cheese curls were gone within 2 minutes, next time we’ll get an extra bag. Lunch was probably the only 5 minutes of (relative) peace at the Colon household.
After lunch we played around some more, even Xander can play videogames better than I can! Then came the third best part of family visits (1. being us and 2. being food) - presents! We sent Megan's birthday present (a necklace) and Xander's (a PSU sweatshirt) week's ago, so we decided to bring Victor's (Transformers Playstation 2 game) and the family Christmas presents. Springfield got them the movie Ice Age, 2 Maverick Nerf guns, and a special DVD with pictures of their son Xavier Emmanuel, who passed away in 2006 after a tough battle with AML.
As the trip was coming to a close, I realized how lucky we are to have the Colons as part of our family. They faced the worst tragedy a family can ever imagine, the loss of a child. And through the pain they remain one of the funniest, happiest, busiest families we know. So here's to the Colons!
