On Friday, January 17th at 6:00pm, my friend and long-time business associate succumbed to the flu virus in Spring, TX. She was 41 years old. Holly leaves behind a loving husband, Brent, and two beautiful daughters, Hunter 9, and Haylee 14. As seen on her page, Holly touched the lives of many people with her love, compassion, business sense, and humor. She was the voice of the Spring/Klei
n area, hands down. To date, her friends, relatives, friends of friends, and total strangers have donated to the family over $22,000 in cash and gift cards to cover medical expenses and household bills. Holly’s passing is a tragic loss. What exactly is the flu? It never ceases to amaze me how many people assume they have “the flu” when they are sick with fever, sniffles, coughing, and aching bones. Only a doctor and a blood test can confirm the flu! It became immediately clear to me, and several of my closest friends, that more education needs to be preached to these misinformed people. We clearly need a platform to educate people on the dangers of the flu, and promote the flu vaccine. In a matter of days, these words were heard as excuses to not have a flu shot, “there’s mercury in the shot,” “the vaccine is live,” “the shot made me sick,” “I’m allergic to eggs,” “I never get sick,” and here’s the best excuse of all, “I don’t need one because I’m not an infant, and I’m not elderly.”
To destroy any disease or bacterial/viral infections, we must be educated in the dangers of that illness and how to prevent it. Within 5 days of her death, “Shots for Holly” was born. On that day, we selected a Board of Directors and had a meeting over dinner. Two days later, the board met with the lawyer to discuss 501c status for our organization. The following day, we added 2 more potential officers and are had our first fundraiser to start the bank account. Our goals are simple and the mission statement is concise. We are to educate the public on the dangers of the flu, pay for flu shots, bus people to a flu-shot administration destination, show how much fun getting the flu shot really is, and eventually we will fund scholarships for children who have lost a parent to the flu. I’ve never done this before, but with the help of those that have worked in the non-profit arena, I believe we’ll be the next Susan G. And you can say you were part of it from the very beginning! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Please help our organization beat this beast of the flu,
ONE SHOT AT A TIME!
