Baskets of Love!

It has been a week full of crazy activity by a lot of dedicated and incredible people. I have been in awe to see the enormity of this event in its unfolding. On Wednesday a group of about ten women met together at Melissa Brenkman’s home to put the baskets together for the silent auction. Their efforts started at about 10 am and the last ones were leaving around 5:30 pm.

When I first walked into Melissa’s home I was greeted by her warm and loving smile and walked up the stairs to find the entire upstairs of her home engulfed in wicker baskets, raffia, bows, cellophane, and tissue paper. Amidst all of the paraphernalia, I saw the faces of people I had know almost my entire life and women I would be meeting for the first time that day. It was indeed another day on this journey where my heart changed! I was overcome with gratitude and a little confusion that there really were this many people that wanted to step forward and do anything they could for my family and I. It really was powerful to see love in action!

To give you an idea of the situation, Melissa’s kitchen and dining room was the BASKET assembly headquarters and was under the direction of none other than Brenda and manned for the entire day by Mindy, Melissa, Chris, and Lisa.

Just off the kitchen, in her living room, Diane, Jesse, Kambri, Sabra, Sandy, Jan and her daughter were in charge of taking the assembled BASKETS and wrapping them. They made everything look so beautiful and it happened fast. In fact, things were so nutty in this room…the highlighter was even wrapped into one of the BASKETS! Everyone paused to laugh and problem solve about how to retrieve the highlighter without hurting the BASKET  ;>

Once the BASKETS  were formed, numbered, and beautified they were taken down into the garage on a big blue tarp; and that gigantic blue tarp just kept getting smaller and smaller as the hours were passing on.

These were not the only rooms occupied in Melissa home; Denise was busy in Hannah’s room writing all of the descriptions for the items in the Live Auction, which were covering the sweet little girl’s bed and floor. Not even the master bedroom and bath were exempt from the onslaught, as hands were being painted, impressions preserved, and clean-up was happening. It was crazy and so fun!

My emotions were right on the surface as I watched them so skillfully take all of the beautiful donations and organize them into incredible BASKETS. It was truly unbelievable and reminded me of a miracle talked about in the New Testament! You remember! Christ had just heard of John the Baptist’s beheading and left the city for a little peace. The people of the city saw him leaving and ran along the shoreline to be taught. Christ had compassion on them, though the other disciples wanted him to tell them to go back into the Village and get their own food, Christ told the disciples to feed them. He then asked how many loaves they had and how many fishes they had. They told the Savior that there were five loaves and two fishes. The Savior took these loaves and fishes and blessed and broke them into twelve BASKETS…these five loaves and two fishes fed 5,000 people (Mark 6:30-44).

I couldn’t help but consider these miraculous BASKETS that were taken to feed the five thousand, as I watched the love and compassion of the women in Melissa’s home transform and multiple what had been given. At the end of this astonishing scene, there were over 150 baskets and as I think about the Savior’s loving example, I couldn’t have felt closer to Him than being surrounded by my friends that day. They were His hands on this earth and have been a huge part in bringing about something really astonishing at the ‘Anything for a Friend’ event. I am so grateful for the many, many selfless acts of charity that have brought this event together. The BASKETS themselves are symbolic of the weaving together of incalculable lives to form something of beauty and function. I feel like that has happened for my family and I and we are held within the BASKET of your love. Thank you. I am really excited to see all of you and hug and thank you all.

Love to you,

Becky

President Thomas S. Monson: “My brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness—be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers. We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.”