Giving Back: Play for Payten Charity Golf Tournament!

UPDATE! I am so grateful to have the most generous readers ever! As usual, you guys are coming through and giving what you can to help someone in need.

Based on some questions, I've received, here are some more detailed instructions:

First off, you do not have to play golf.

You can still collect Pledges/Sponsors without playing golf, but in order to do so, you still have to sign up like you would if you were playing golf. There will be a section where it asks you if you are participating in golf or if you are just wanting to collect pledges and you would just click that you want to just collect pledges. The website you sign up on is integritygolfsolutions.com.

There is no cost to you if you want to participate and play golf. You can donate if you would like, but you do not have to. The only thing you are asked to do is go out and get Pledges/sponsors. Your sponsors can either Pledge by the hole or they can pledge a certain amount - it does not matter. Now if you do not want to play golf and you do not want to collect pledges, you can help by making a donation/pledge yourself.

Steps to take if you do not want to golf, you just want to make a donation/pledge:

1. Go to integritygolfsolutions.com

2. On the right side of the website, you will see in red, “Upcoming Events”. There is a scroll bar to the right of that, scroll down until you see Play For Payten Golf -A- Thon, click on the green Pledge Button.

3. This will take you to a page that lists everyone who has signed up to either Play Golf or Just collect Pledges. Choose someone you want to sponsor. Click on their name and it will take you to their Pledge Page.

4. There you can decide if you want to Pledge by hole or just a certain amount. If you are just wanting to pledge a certain amount, you will enter it where it says OTHER. And then follow the instructions from there!

Steps to take if you want to Participate in Golfing or if you Just want to Help in Collecting Pledges:

1. Go to integritygolfsolutions.com

2. Click on the button: New Time User

3. Create a User Name and Password

4. Fill out the required information.

5. In the section where it says, Event Location, type in Phoenix, AZ, “Play for Payten” should appear below. If “Play for Payten” does not appear, don't worry, try typing Chandler, AZ instead and it should appear. Once you add the Event, go to the bottom of the page and click on Save user and event info.

6. This will take you to your official Profile page/Pledge Page.

7. From here, you can email out your Pledge Page to everyone you know, asking for their help in sponsoring you in the “Play for Payten” Golf-A-Thon. It is all there ready for you to send, all you have to do is take these steps and sign up!
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I love blogging and the instant connectivity it gives. I also love how far a message can reach by broadcasting it out and having others broadcast it out to their friends. I have an opportunity for you all to give back to a local family in need.

Please take a minute and read about The Merrill Family...

The Merrills are dear friends of our family. They live in our neighborhood, attend our church, and we have loved being friends with them for the past 5 years. Kim & Joseph have 3 beautiful children Zachary, Makenna, and Peyton.

Peyton was born October 16, 2008. Despite having no complications during pregnancy or delivery, Payten began her life with complications that become greater than her parents ever imagined.

Payten was born having water in her lungs and trouble breathing. After spending some time in the Observation Nursery in the NICU, she seemed to catch on to feeding and breathing quickly, so she was sent home. In Payten's mother's words, "We were so ecstatic words cannot express the joy we felt, we believed our troubles and worries were over, but as Payten’s Mother I could not dismiss that feeling deep down that told me something was wrong with my child, I just didn’t know what it was or how bad."

Payten was re-admitted to the NICU a week later with Failure to Thrive and Hypotonia. After an extensive work-up of tests, several diseases were ruled out, but no definitive answers were given. After being in the NICU for 3 weeks, it was discovered a valve in Payten's heart never closed and that she aspirated while swallowing. Since then, she has had several major surgeries and has spent 190 days in the hospital.

Current status from Payten's parents:

"We know now after months of waiting, that Payten suffers from a rare deficiency called Cerebral Foliate Deficiency. It is treatable with a Foliate Supplement. Now can it reverse the damage that this deficiency has caused? No one knows. Do we know if Payten will get better? No. Could she not and become worse? Possibly. It is a wait and see diagnosis. Research on this is kind of discouraging. We just have faith that whatever happens is meant to happen."

This family has endured so much over the past 20 months of caring for their sweet Payten. In addition to the emotional strain of watching their sick child struggle through every complication, they have been financially strained by the astronomical costs of medical care. Any family who has had major medical issues knows that having medical insurance is unfortunately, not enough.

The Merrill Family is organizing an awesome charity golf tournament called, "Play for Payten" to be held on Monday, July 12th. You (or someone you know) can golf in the tournament or you can pledge money to fund Payten's care.

Click here to visit Payten's website for all the info!

You can also read all about the event here and read Payten's entire story here.

Please forward this onto your friends and family, repost this on your blog or Facebook, Tweet about this - get the word out there for this sweet family! I will repost about this as we get closer to the event and I will also create a static link on the right side of my blog where money can be donated at any time.

As her mom has told me before, "Payten will thank you someday, maybe not in this life, but you will receive a thank you."