CHERUBS 2009 International Member Conference

Finally, it is all finalized and we have the hotel information! I will be posting more information (driving directions, etc) soon. The Holiday Inn Select San Antonio Airport 77 NE Loop 410 San Antonio, TX 78216 210-349-9900 http://www.hisairport.com CHERUBS Room Rate is $89.00 CHERUBS Room Rate + Breakfast for 2 adults is $97.00 Breakfast is not free with your room! I’m sorry, we tried, but this is the best we can do! Feel free to bring milk, cereal, etc if you want to save money! I think kid’s do eat free in the dining room (per their site). Rooms come with coffee makers, microwaves and mini fridges. There is a pool, restaurant, bar and fitness center. Free internet. To receive the CHERUBS discount you *MUST* tell them you are CHERUBS members when you book the room and you must book it for July 22-25th or longer. We have to book 25 rooms to get our discounts and freebies so please, please, PLEASE stay at this hotel!!! It’s definitely the best value around anyway!!! 🙂 I was planning on rooming myself with another mom but because we need to book those rooms I’m now booking my own room. I know several of you are rooming but please reconsider if you can afford it (we totally understand if you can’t! We just want you to attend either way!). We worked really hard to find a decent, safe hotel that was inexpensive and we hope we did ok. It’s not glamorous but then, we didn’t want our members paying $150 a night to stay on the Riverwalk. This hotel is near the airport and includes an airport shuttle and will also go anywhere in a 2 mile radius of the hotel (that’s not including the Riverwalk or Sea World, but does include the malls). They have been very generous to us and are allowing us a FREE suite for the kids during the conference and are only charging us a cleaning for the Meeting Room… that’s saving us $1000’s!!! So a huge thank you to the Holiday Inn Select!!! We’re working on the conference web site and brochure, as well as locking in our 3 speakers and kid’s entertainment. Tentatively, here’s our schedule: July 22, 2009 – Check In July 22, 2009 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm – Pizza Party and Introductions July 23, 2009 8:00 am to 12:00 noon – Conference July 24, 2009 8:00 am to 12:00 noon – Conference July 25, 2009 8:00 am to 12:00 noon – Conference July 25, 2009 – Check Out That gives everyone the afternoons & evenings to go play. Our guest speakers will speak on CDH Research, Genetics and Repair – including the head of the CDH Study Group, Dr. Lally. Round table discussions will be held for both parents of survivors and grieving parents. There will be free babysitting during conference hours for the kids (volunteers needed!) and entertainment for them too (clown, magician, etc). There is no conference fee, you just have to be a member of CHERUBS to attend! You are responsible for your own lodging, food and other travel costs. We are working on discount tickets for the local attractions. I have to say that the San Antonio Tourist Bureau has been AMAZING!!!! They will be sending all of our member info on the conference and San Antonio at no cost to CHERUBS!!! 🙂 So far it looks like there will be about 150 in attendance!!! We have members coming in from Australia, Mexico, Great Britain, Canada and Italy as well!!! This is truly a CHERUBS INTERNATIONAL Conference!!! 🙂 We hope to see you all there!!!

CHERUBS 2009 International Conference

The date and location have been set! July 23-25, 2009 in San Antonio, Texas! The hotel location will be posted soon.

Our conference include several CDH experts as guestspeakers, round table discussions for both families of survivors and grieving families, pizza party, entertainment for the kids and more!

This year we are expecting about 100 members with families flying in from as far as Australia! We will have at least 4 countries represented at this conference – hopefully many more.

All members of CHERUBS (including CHERUBS UK and CHERUBS Australia) are welcome to attend! If you’re not a member, sign up for free at http://www.cdhsupport.org/members

Miracles Do Exist

This video is from our local NC news channel. It’s quite inspirational to everyone, but especially to families who are dealing with medically fragile children such as our children born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/4187280/

This is a wonderful example of why our organization is named CHERUBS. For the baby angels that these children are. Miracles can happen with angels and cherubs. So many of our families have witnessed miracles. Miracles do exist.

International Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Conferences

The locations of our next 2 International Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Conferences have been chosen!

July, 2009 – Texas! Town and exact date not yet decided.

July, 2010 – San Francisco, California! Exact date not yet decided.

More details will be posted in the coming months!