I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone involved in the Help Hannah Bake Sale – from the individuals who organized the bake sale to the people who attended the Celebration of Youth Sports on May 31st and stopped by the bake sale booth to purchase some of the delicious baked goods as well as our Forney Brookshire’s, who graciously donated many of the dry goods used in the bake sale.

Thanks to everyone involved, this bake sale – which was organized by some very dedicated volunteers in less than 10 days – raised over $1,100 to support Hannah’s family as they work to find a way to pay for the surgery this precious four year old girl needs to correct a painful, debilitating congenital birth defect.

I was able to stop by the Celebration of Youth Sports all too briefly on the 31st and thought it was an impressive event; city estimates place the total turnout at over 1,000 people who browsed among quite a few booths that were setup by local businesses, organizations and sports teams. The live music was great and it was wonderful getting to meet a number of regular readers as well as a few active participants from the Forney discussion forum here on 20PM.

Although the bake sale is over, you can still help support Hannah and her family as they face this trying time; the Forney Opry is holding a benefit concert for Hannah this Sunday, June 15th from 2 to 4PM. As was the case with the Help Hannah Bake Sale, all of the proceeds (every penny!) of the ticket sales from the concert, in addition to all of the tips, will be donated to the Hannah Kessner fund at the First National Bank of Forney. For more information about the benefit concert at the Forney Opry, visit the Opry website.

Several of the volunteers who manned the bake sale shared their experiences and their appreciation for the support from the Forney community in this thread in the Forney discussion forum.

Events like these really make me proud to call Forney home and give me faith and hope for the future of our town as it experiences so much growth – we have so many caring residents who, without thinking twice, jumped into action and found a way to give their own time and money to help a family in need. This just proves to me that as a town, we can grow, we can nearly triple in size in under 8 years while maintaining a small town, positive environment.

While I have to admit I’m partial to the old “Forney Texas – twenty peaceful minutes east of downtown Dallas” slogan, the new slogan “Forney Texas – a community of values and vision” rings even truer to me after seeing the Forney community come together so quickly and so strongly to support this family in their time of need.

Welcome to Twenty Peaceful Minutes (20PM) - a community website for Forney, Texas. In addition to this blog, 20PM is home to the Forney discussion forums, which you may reach by clicking the Forney discussion forum link or going to http://20pm.net/forums; also, considering signing up for email or newsreader (RSS feed) notifications of new posts to the 20PM blog!