BenSpark Family Adventures

Welcome John Chow Readers

Please visit this link for the information on how to participate. The post below is about the family I have been trying to help.

I was contacted by my High School a couple of days back to participate in a phone-a-thon. Apparently they didn’t get the memo that I am not the class liaison any longer. Not a big deal. I let them know and they told me that I should get in touch with a former classmate about the 15 year reunion. So I did and now I am helping with the reunion. It was pretty crazy planning it 5 years ago and I wasn’t quite sure that I wanted to get back into the fray. But when Allie told me about why she is planning it I had to jump in with both feet.

Another former classmate of mine Becky is having a very difficult time. She has three beautiful kids and a great husband. Becky had cancer and it is currently in remission. Now her husband has cancer and their health insurance provider will not cover them any longer. The constant doctor’s appointments and treatments for both Becky and Mike have taken a toll on their finances. And Mike’s cancer is pretty bad. Becky and Mike keep a journal on Mike’s battle with cancer and through reading the entries I can see that they are staying positive and trying everything they can to beat this disease. It has been a long battle with Cancer for the Machinski Family that began in 1999. So for nearly ten years the threat of cancer has been hanging over the heads of the Machinski Family. I’ve been reading the journal and can see the love that the family has for each other and that has made them so very strong in this fight. But some financial support would go a long way to help ease some of their worries so they can concentrate on fighting Mike’s cancer.

What does this have to do with the reunion. Well, since Allie took the job of planning the reunion she is going to also set it up as an opportunity to raise some money for Becky and her family. We are looking into the possibility of a silent auction during the reunion and using donated items for the prizes in the auction. Already between Allie and I we have come up with quite a few items but we need even more to make this a decent silent auction. That is beginning to shape up nicely however, the reunion is going to be around Thanksgiving and Becky’s family needs help now. Donations can be made through the Family Journal and you can also help Becky out by making a purchase of jewelry from Becky’s online store. The site is called Hope Creations. I am adding a permanent link to my sidebar to the site. Becky makes handcrafted jewelry and sells it at her store in Palmerton, Pennsylvania but if you cannot make it there you can still shop at Hope Creations Online. You can also help by sending a direct donation to the Machinski family at this address.

Mike Machinski
70 Ridgeview Drive
Lehighton, Pa 18235

Visit Hope Creations Online

If you would like to make a donation for the silent auction for the 15 year reunion please contact me. Thanks.

Today Allison and I went to Providence to see Dublin Carol starring William Peterson from CSI. Allison got me tickets for our 1 year anniversary. We started the day with lunch at Fire + Ice.

Dinner/Late Lunch at Fire + Ice was a fun experience. At Fire + Ice you pick out the food that you want to have cooked. Then you pick a sauce to go with it. You pile up your bowl of ingredients.

I would not go with crayfish again but the sauce was very good and everything else in the bowl was good too.

We each made two trips up to the food stations and tried a couple concoctions. It was a fun experience. I think it would be a good time with a large group of people as well, but it was equally good with just the two of us.

After Fire + Ice we walked to Trinity Rep to see Dublin Carol. We passed through Waterplace Park and up past the Dunkin Donuts center on the Way to Trinity Rep.

Waterplace Park

The play was very good, dark humor, some of it depressing, but I think that there was hope there at the end. William Peterson was excellent as John. Rachel Warren was Mary, John’s daughter and she was also the lead in the Play Edwin Drood that we saw last year. After the show there was a 20 minute discussion with the Creative Director of Trinity Rep. That was interesting.

We drove over to Derek and Michelle’s to visit them at the annual New Year’s Party. It was low key this year because Nicholas was born 2 months ago and the new parent’s have a lot on their plates. Neil and Andrea were there as well as Matt and Beth. We took turns playing with Derek’s Nintendo Wii. I really want to get one of those things now. I made a Mii character that looks very much like me, we all agreed that I translate well into cartoon. Scary.