God's Little Flower

We have been involved with a project called The Grayson Rose for last few months. It came about from a tragedy when two friends who are part of Pam's radio station family lost their daughter Grayson before she was born.

Pam approached me with the idea of naming a rose after her and using part of the proceeds for charity to help others with what they had been through. The idea was to couple helping a friend with helping others as well. Matt and Amy Harris embraced the idea and that is how The Grayson Rose came into this world.

I have never had children, nor lost a child so I am not going to say something stupid like I know what they went through. But I do know this; roses have an amazing power to heal that for reasons I don't want to understand just are. This I have known my entire career with them.

I only hope Matt and Amy find some comfort in knowing their daughter lives on in The Grayson Rose. Matt tells me so and I completely believe him. Matt is a very funny guy with a warm heart but he is not a BS artist.

We have sold close to 1000 Grayson Roses, raising close to $7000 to help the March of Dimes work with premature children, so hopefully someone else may be spared what they went through. But above that the messages that come into the nursery as The Grayson Rose is gifted to others tell me that many are finding solace in Matt and Amy's brave decision to go public with this. If indeed a tragedy shared is a problem halved then in this case a tragedy divided by a thousand gives comfort to so many.

Yet Grayson's gift goes beyond even something Matt and Amy don't know. In these economic times all small business are facing challenges. But for us, thanks to The Grayson Rose and the warmth, generosity, love and support of all of Matt and Ramona's listeners, the economic challenges facing Ashdown are far less than one month ago.

We gladly donated 40% of the proceeds of The Grayson Rose to charity. But what God's Little Flower donated back to us is immeasurable.

Thank you Grayson.