Letter to the editor; Bride-to-be urges others to donate to Haitian victims
Kristen Krebs
Issue date: 1/27/10 Section: News
Leah Bogen is engaged to Will Nicholson. Both are UMD graduates -- Bogen in 2007 and Nicholson in 2002. Their generosity toward Haiti relief has sparked others to give but to a different cause. People have offered to donate to their wedding fund. As the couple receives wedding donations they plan to continue to donate the money that they would have spent on their wedding to Haiti relief. Their story was shown on Kare11 news last week.
The couple resides in Maplewood, Minn. Bogen is a personal trainer at a YMCA in Woodbury and Nicholson is a family practice physician at St. John's Hospital in Maplewood. Their wedding is set to take place on June 19, 2010 at Nicholson's grandparents' home in Mahtomedi, Minn.
Dear Editor,
Today I donated the food budget for my wedding to relief efforts in Haiti.
Getting married and planning the perfect wedding is something most women, including me, dream about for a very long time. The perfect dress, decorations, catering, flowers, cakes, the list goes on and on. It is my chance to be "queen for a day" and it feels great. My ffiancé and I have been planning our wedding for a few months now, meeting with vendors, setting our budget and having many long conversations about creating the perfect wedding.
Running in tandem with our wedding planning conversations over the past few days has been the horror and human tragedy in Haiti. I woke up Sunday morning and sat down with a cup of coffee and the newspaper and read about people with no food or water, having limbs amputated in makeshift hospitals in a last chance effort to save their lives. I suggested to my fiancé right then that we should donate part of our wedding budget to disaster relief in Haiti. Anyone who has planned a wedding knows how tight the budget can get, but without a moment's pause he said "YES! I love you SO much!"
We have decided to donate our food budget - 25% of our wedding funds - to aid victims of the Haiti earthquake. Our friends and family can go without a fancy wedding dinner, especially if it means helping provide food, medical care and shelter for those desperately in need.
The tragedy in Haiti is so huge I hope that other brides- to-be will take this message to heart and find a way to donate to a relief organization. Find something in your wedding budget that you don't need and just cut it out. Assess what is most important to you on your wedding day, harness your bride-power, and take action to do something that will make your wedding unbelievably meaningful! Your wedding will be spectacular, and the money you donate will make a huge difference to someone in dire need.
Sincerely,
Leah Bogen (UMD Alum 2007)
The couple resides in Maplewood, Minn. Bogen is a personal trainer at a YMCA in Woodbury and Nicholson is a family practice physician at St. John's Hospital in Maplewood. Their wedding is set to take place on June 19, 2010 at Nicholson's grandparents' home in Mahtomedi, Minn.
Dear Editor,
Today I donated the food budget for my wedding to relief efforts in Haiti.
Getting married and planning the perfect wedding is something most women, including me, dream about for a very long time. The perfect dress, decorations, catering, flowers, cakes, the list goes on and on. It is my chance to be "queen for a day" and it feels great. My ffiancé and I have been planning our wedding for a few months now, meeting with vendors, setting our budget and having many long conversations about creating the perfect wedding.
Running in tandem with our wedding planning conversations over the past few days has been the horror and human tragedy in Haiti. I woke up Sunday morning and sat down with a cup of coffee and the newspaper and read about people with no food or water, having limbs amputated in makeshift hospitals in a last chance effort to save their lives. I suggested to my fiancé right then that we should donate part of our wedding budget to disaster relief in Haiti. Anyone who has planned a wedding knows how tight the budget can get, but without a moment's pause he said "YES! I love you SO much!"
We have decided to donate our food budget - 25% of our wedding funds - to aid victims of the Haiti earthquake. Our friends and family can go without a fancy wedding dinner, especially if it means helping provide food, medical care and shelter for those desperately in need.
The tragedy in Haiti is so huge I hope that other brides- to-be will take this message to heart and find a way to donate to a relief organization. Find something in your wedding budget that you don't need and just cut it out. Assess what is most important to you on your wedding day, harness your bride-power, and take action to do something that will make your wedding unbelievably meaningful! Your wedding will be spectacular, and the money you donate will make a huge difference to someone in dire need.
Sincerely,
Leah Bogen (UMD Alum 2007)
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