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David Pfau with Allstate Insurance announces his partnership with the 3rd Annual CleftStrong Family 5k: We are pleased to announce our partnership with CleftStrong charity! Some of you may know that they host an annual 5K in September. Between now and the 5K date, if you contact either of our offices and indicate that you are getting a "QUOTE FOR CLEFT STRONG" we will donate $10 to this fine charity organization as well as enter your name into a drawing for some cool prizes. It only takes a quote! There is no other obligation on your part! Let's see if we can generate $2500 for this worthy charity! (Current Allstate clients are not eligible). Remember, although our offices are physically in San Antonio, we can quote and write business all over Texas! See you at the 5K !! -David Pfau, Allstate Insurance You may contact either the Castle Hills location (210-257-0117) or the new Bulverde Market Place location (210-538-6664) to receive a quote "for CleftStrong". Your name will be entered into a raffle drawing to take place on race day and a $10 donation will be made to the charity. Enjoy friendly customer service, find out if you are paying the lowest insurance rate, and change lives. (No further obligation.)
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Please feel free to add any Purple Carpet Photos that you captured yourself here too. Through Shutterfly you can add, view, download, and order prints all in one place! Let us know how it works out for you!   At a Glance Reminders for Race Day: Teams: Come dressed FUN and CREATIVE! We will be presenting the Most Creative Team award during closing ceremony along with Farthest Traveler and Oldest Finisher! Parking Information: Parking will be available in the Morgan's Wonderland parking lot directly across from the park and there will be additional parking at the Heroes Stadium parking lot. We advise to arrive early for convenient parking and to avoid long lines for registration/sign in. We encourage you to take advantage of early packet pick up if you have already registered online to avoid race day lines. We will be holding early packet pick up on Saturday, September 12th from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at Academy Sports+Outdoors in the Northwoods Shopping Center, 2024 TX-1604 Loop, San Antonio, TX 78232. Look for our CleftStrong sign immediately when you enter the store to the left. At early packet pick up, you will take care of sign in plus receive your CleftStrong race day t-shirt and sport pack with bib number. The only thing you will need to retrieve when you arrive before the race is your timing tag. If you would like to take advantage of the discounted rate at Morgan's Wonderland Park after the race, all you will need to do is mention that you participated in the CleftStrong 5k. They will open their gates to children affected by a cleft condition for free and all other participants at $9/person. Please click below to find more information and print your program of events for race day! 
If you will be registering at the race on Sunday here is a way to save time! 1. Print this registration form out for each participant registering with you. 2. Complete the form(s). 3. Race Day Registration begins at 7 am sharp. Hand your completed forms to the race day registration table when you arrive. 4. Save lots of time! Remember we need a form completed for each participant, so if you have more than one to register this will save you a great deal of time in the line and allow you more time for the fun stuff!
 My name is Emma Brockway. I am currently a sophomore at Texas State University, but my story begins about eighteen years prior to that. I was born in China with a cleft lip and cleft palate. I was adopted at age one and brought to Dallas, TX. A few years later, my parents and I moved to Houston, TX. I lived in Houston for the majority of my life, until college.  Throughout my life, I endured about nine surgeries. When I was a baby, I had my first surgery: the cleft palate repair. I don’t remember it since it was so long ago, but from pictures, it seems like I handled it fairly well for a baby. The surgery with the most complexities and hardest recovery was my jaw surgery. I had jaw surgery in 11th grade and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through. Between only being able to eat clear liquids for five days, to having my mouth rubber banded shut, to the limitations on any physical activity, it was a rough recovery process. Looking back, I could not be happier about the surgery. The results were phenomenal. I had braces for seven years and a retainer for a total of about two years. For nine years of my life, I had some form of metal in my mouth. I began the orthodontia process around age nine, and was not rid of my metal retainer until halfway through my freshman year of college.  Through high school, I stayed extremely involved in extracurricular activities. I joined my school orchestra in sixth grade and stayed in it until my high school graduation. I golfed on my school’s golf team for five years (8th-12th grades). I joined various clubs at my high school and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I began attending Texas State University in the fall of 2014. I am an English major with the goal of attending law school after I graduate from Texas State. Upon arriving at Texas State, I immediately got involved with different organizations; many of which I am still a member today. I genuinely love my school and could not be happier at another university.  I “graduated” from Shriners Hospital (officially) a few months ago. I have stayed connected within the Cleft Palate community by running an Instagram account: @cleftcommunity. A few years ago, a girl who is a few years younger than me asked me to help her manage her Instagram account called “@cleftlipandpalate.” We both ran the account for some time, but she eventually got too busy with her studies. I took over the account, then created a new one: @cleftcommunity. @Cleftcommunity is an Instagram account aimed at uniting the people with cleft lips and cleft palates. The followers come from various areas. I have personally had the pleasure of talking with a few of them via third party messaging aps, email, and text. The Instagram account allows people to talk about their personal experiences with certain surgeries and the struggles of having a cleft palate and/or cleft lip. I absolutely love managing this account because it shows me a multitude of perspectives that I personally have not experiences. It also provides a tool for others to meet people who have similar situations and who have gone through similar experiences; both good and bad. Another way I am involved with the various people who have cleft lips and cleft palates is that I am the Houston Shriners Patient Ambassador. I will be attending the Shriners Open this fall, in Las Vegas, to represent my hospital. I love the staff at Shriners and everything they have done for me. I am always open to hearing about different people’s stories and if interested, I am more than willing to share my own.
You can personally invite co-workers, members of your running group, gym, church group, girl scout/boy scout group, sport team, cheer squad, dance team, neighbors.. the list goes on! Just follow these few steps and they will lead you to something pretty awesome! 1. Print this downloadable flyer. 2. Personally invite whoever you want with your flyer. 3. Once you have a group, come up with a fun team name of your choice. 4. Register yourself at https://www.raceentry.com/races/cleftstrong-5k/2015/register 5. Take note of your very own unique registration link that you receive in your confirmation email. 6. Have each individual in your team register using that link AND your team name. 7. Receive $3.00 back for every one person who registers using your link! AND THERE'S MORE: If your team is the largest to register by 11:59 pm CST, August 11, 2015, YOU will be the winner of this year's very first [and ONE and ONLY] pair of CleftStrong lucky socks for race day as way of us saying thank you for your great effort! More friends = an even bigger memory = even more support! We thank you for your support and Good Luck! Ready. Set. Go!
One exceptional phone call from Dr. Roy Gonzalez, Jr. and last weekend marked a first for our growing organization. We were invited to speak to the Craniofacial Cleft/Congenital Anomalies Clinic Team at Methodist Children's Hospital. This amazing group of professionals are specially trained in various critical areas of treatment for craniofacial anomalies and it was an incredible honor to share our passion and discuss our goals with them. Below are some pictures my husband took of this special moment for us. We will forever hold it dear to our hearts. Kids are special people and so is this team!     We are happy to share this exciting moment with you all - and especially with our avid runners! We know that you train hard. We know that you work hard. And we know that your finish time is important. We did our research around town and we are very excited to welcome iaap on as our official timing company for the Second Annual CleftStrong Family 5k! This is one major step forward in the 5k world for us this year. It will be a new experience for us and we are thrilled. Iaap is founded by Jose Iniguez, a prominent runner since his teenage years and one who has a list of distinguished and hard earned personal accomplishments. He and his team of running specialists do what they do with, both, a passion and first hand experience.
So, what next? Well, it's FRIDAY...we'll go ahead and share some more great news with you! During closing ceremony immediately following the race, we will have the pleasure of handing out trophies for the top three Female and Male runners in all age categories from our 14 and under Big Heart Racers to our 70 and over Big Heart Racers! And more? We wanted to add some other fun awards too. So, we did. Check out this year's awards below and sign up today! We'll have your race day t-shirt and CleftStrong drawstring sport pack patiently waiting for you on race day! View This Year's Race Awards Here You're not just any racer when you register for the CleftStrong 5k. You are a "Big Heart Racer"! Send us your picture when you register and we will make sure to pin you to the Big Heart Racer board on our website!
There are several ways to share registrant(s) pictures with us: Email it to us by scrolling to Connect With Us on the left side column of our home page. You can also Tweet it to us or share it via Facebook! With great BIG hearts, we will add you as soon as we can! Register HERE and get a free CleftStrong 5k race day shirt and Race Day Bag! I remember searching the city endlessly for fun things to do with Richie not long after he was born. I wanted to find fun, family friendly activities that said YOUR STROLLER IS WELCOME. I found some fun things, and I also found a realization that no matter how many activities I found, my search really was never going to end - because there would always be a new, unique experience out there that we could all learn from. If you are a parent with the same search, I hope this reaches you in your search. We are working on an event coming up that welcomes everyone. We welcome you to bring all the kiddos you can fit in your car too! The money raised from this event will mean, without a doubt, amazing support for families all over affected by craniofacial anomalies, but aside from that is something that I focus in on with such compassion. It is the experience that will surely affect the joining kiddos [and adults] for years and years to come.
Within just the few hours on this September 13th morning that you’re walking, running, looking around at the amazing park where we all gather, there will be something that makes all the difference in the world for a young, innocent, and unknowing mind that is so eager to learn about all of the people, places and things that make up the whole entire world around him. Consider that these few short hours of fun together with your family and the rest of the community will leave an impact on your child that will build a strength and knowledge to face what will surely come. The world is full of differences and we are a world of reasoning minds that can tell a difference without much thought or effort at all. Imagine a school yard of innocent minds and a swarm of differences to question and wonder about. How would you like to know that your child sees someone with a cleft lip at school that needs to step away from the rest of the class for speech, or overhears that a classmate of his is needing to leave school for, yet, another doctor appointment this school year and doesn’t come back to school for days because he had another surgery that needed to be done, or maybe notices that his classmate needs to sit closer to the teacher because he can’t hear too well due to all of the ear infections he has had because of a cleft palate, and instead of pointing his finger or wondering aloud, he simply recalls this walk. He recalls a fun morning that he walked with his family and friends in support of someone who could use some help. He recalls learning a thing or two about it on the way there when his parents explained the event they were going to and why. And he explains away other classmate’s questions (whether it be a face gesture or a verbal question) because he knows exactly why he has to do what he has to do and aside from a few differences, he knows he’s just like him. Perhaps, you learn that he was even able to help the teacher's understanding on something. Does this walk really have the ability to provide that kind of wisdom to a young child? I say absolutely. It has the ability to help your child make a difference instead of just noticing one. What an amazing and powerful difference you can rest in knowing about your child. And it won’t be just by chance. It will be because of you. It will be because you opened the door to an opportunity for your child to make a difference in someone else’s life. And I’m not just talking about money. We look forward to this day for so many reasons. It will be an emotional one for me, yet again, fair warning! Join us! It will be a special time. Register Here. |
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