$18 for #18

If you follow me on social media (Facebook or Twitter -- I'm on Instagram too, but I don't really know what to do there most of the time)... you will have seen me asking for $18 for #18 on January 18. What's up with that?

January 18 is Mitchell's birthday, and part of the reason he picked #18 for his hockey number. (Peyton Manning didn't hurt, either.) So for Mitchell's birthday, I am hoping that his friends and family will be able to make a donation to one of his favorite causes in his honor. $18 seemed like a good number -- that's a dollar a day for the month of January. If you want to pick a different number, that's good too. I know some people have picked $118 (for his birthday, 1/18).

So what are these causes? I want to put them down in one place, so you can read about them all and then pick one, or two, or four that mean something to you, too.

One option is The Seeing Eye, http://www.seeingeye.org . The Seeing Eye is an organization that trains -- you guessed it -- Seeing Eye dogs. Mitchell always loved animals, and was especially interested in working dogs -- I thought he might have looked at a career in law enforcement with K9 dogs or something along those lines someday. But when he was in the 5th grade, he read an article in a Weekly Reader or some little magazine at school about the Seeing Eye. At the same time, I was working with the organization to place a historical marker in Nashville, and had learned a little about them myself. Together, we learned that The Seeing Eye was founded in the United States in Nashville, by a blind Nashville man named Morris Frank, who was a student at Vanderbilt. Mitchell even named one of our dogs Morris, after Morris Frank.

Another option, also for animal lovers, is Snooty Giggles Dog Rescue, http://snootygiggles.com/. Again, I'll say that Mitchell loved animals, especially dogs. He once said to me that he wanted to make a lot of money playing hockey so he could buy a big farm and have lots of rescued dogs. Shawn has done that (without the lot of money playing hockey) at Snooty Giggles. Both of our dogs are rescue dogs; neither of them came from Snooty Giggles. But two of our hockey family friends are active foster families with Snooty Giggles, and they even "fostered" Morris for us this summer while we were in the hospital. (Our vet graciously fostered Mia, as she was recovering from ACL surgery at the same time.)

The third option is for our history friends, and that is to give to the Tennessee Historical Society, in support of Tennessee History Day (although if you just tell them it is for #18, they'll know where it goes). Mitchell participated in Tennessee History Day from grades 6-10. Four out of five times, he advanced out of districts to the State competition. He medalled twice at the State competition, and was able to go to the national competition in Washington, DC. The director and the THD coordinator both told me this summer that they wanted to name an award at the state competition in Mitchell's memory. Donations made to them will help keep Mitchell's name prominent at the state competition for years to come.

The fourth option, and one I am particularly proud of, is the Mitchell Mielnik Scholarship at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of many of you, we were able to endow a scholarship fund in Mitchell's name. The first award will be given in May 2017, and will go to a GNASH or travel hockey player from Middle Tennessee who demonstrates integrity in his or her academic, athletic, and personal life. Donations made here will help grow this scholarship fund and will hopefully allow for more than one award to be made annually, eventually.

So there you go. If you would think about giving Mitchell a gift for his birthday, please do so. All of these places are well-established 501c3 organizations, and any gift made to any of these places is tax deductible. I continually have to say -- thank you. Mitchell may be gone from us physically, but I will always feel him close when I watch hockey, or play with our dogs, or work with History Day students. I know these organizations and causes would be very special to him.