FIGHT NIGHT!

Well, last night was absolutely incredible!!! Our good friend Justin Gill, although not winning his fight, had an EXCELLENT match!!! I was able to take HD video of the whole fight, you can check it out RIGHT HERE ON THE FOUNDATION'S NEW YOUTUBE PAGE! Also a very special thanks to Justin who donated his ENTIRE commission for the fight to our foundation. We are truly blessed to have friends like him in our lives.

Tom Call, Dave Terrell and David Mitchell put on quite the event last night. Amanda and I personally had never been to an MMA match of any kind before. We were absolutely blown away!!! Some of the highlights of the evening were Collin Hart brutalizing his opponent in a 46 second win, Dom 'Shonuff' Waters' decisive victory and Nate Loughran's main event win against Jaime Jara! It was a very successful night for the NorCal Fighting Alliance. I haven't seen a Santa Rosa event that packed in years. I also gained a complete and utter respect for the hard work, determination and dedication that these fighters displayed. The training that these guys go through is no joke. They were also generally very respectful of one another and exhibited a level of sportsmanship and camaraderie that is noticeably absent in most mainstream sports. So many times in the news and on talk radio I hear of showboating, narcissistic athletes with bloated salaries that are so concerned with their image that they forget that they are part of a team that only works properly when every member is focused on their part, their cog in the wheel. These fighters are a true team; even in a sport where they battle individually, you can see how close they are and how much they utilize each other for encouragement and support.

I'm sure for any of you that were there or have been following this event on Facebook, you knew about the awesome raffle that was put together for the foundation. The prizes included a beautiful Schwinn bike from The Bike Peddler in Santa Rosa, WileyX sunglasses, tickets to another MMA event coming up in Oakland, and much more. The fans were incredibly generous and the raffle tickets were darn near sold out by the middle of the event! Amanda and I were brought up by Amanda's long time friend Jessica Terrell, who was instrumental in involving Jon's foundation in this event and who we cannot thank enough for her love and support of our son, to come into the ring and pick the winning raffle ticket. We came into the ring and were introduced by, funny enough, an old soccer buddy of mine from high school, Craig Bangsberg. Craig was a first time MC of this sort of event but he did an EXCELLENT job, even leading the entire crowd in a round of 'Happy Birthday' for Jon at one point! (YOU CAN CHECK OUT A SMALL SNIPPET HERE AT OUR YOUTUBE PAGE!) As I heard many people say before, during and after the event, we couldn't believe it was Craig's first time doing this and I hope he is called on to do many more events like this, he was awesome!! We picked the winning raffle ticket and an excited gentleman ran up to the stage to get his picture taken with the lovely ring girls. After the event, we were able to shake hands with him and a few of his friends who had gone in on the tickets together and thank them for supporting our son's cause. Then the unthinkable happened...they were gathering their winnings and conferred briefly with one another, came over to Amanda and I and said that they wanted us to take all of the raffle goods and re-auction them for our son's cause in some way. We are still just stunned by this completely self-less act that these fine gentlemen engaged in. We are very proud to say that most of these items will be featured at the silent auction and raffle at the golf tournament that is being organized for Jon's foundation this September (more details on that soon!). A special thanks to those gentlemen, who we only caught first names of. We will not forget what they did and will honor the sentiment of the gesture.

What a night. I can't wait until the next time I get to see these warriors in epic battle! Again, thanks to Jessica and Dave Terrell, Tom Call, David Mitchell, Justin Gill and ALL OF THE FIGHTERS, Craig Bangsberg, all of our wonderful friends and family that came out to the event to support Jon and the NorCal Fighting Alliance and ALL OF THE WONDERFUL FANS WHO BOUGHT RAFFLE TICKETS!!!!

Thank you all again and we'll be posting more pictures and videos of the night as they come our way. Have a beautiful evening!

~Jeff Martin

Cage Combat - A Brutal Fundraiser.

Hey everyone, our good friends over at the Norcal Fighting Alliance are hosting the most bad-ass event in Sonoma County. Teaming up with Cage Combat FC (NorCal), they are exhibiting some truly violent benevolence! On March 3, 2012, which also just happens to be Jon's first birthday, they are going to engage in some straight-up MMA combat craziness and they're including our foundation in the madness! Make sure to buy a ticket to the event at the link below and 20% of your ticket price will be donated to the Jon Michael Martin Foundation!!!

BUY YOUR TICKET HERE!!! http://cagecombat-jmmfoundation.eventbrite.com/ BUY YOUR TICKET HERE!!!

We'll be unveiling some more aspects of the event as it draws closer, but make sure that you reserve your seat today!!! Special thanks to Jessica and Dave Terrell, David Mitchell, Justin Gill and Tom Call for thinking of our little guy.

JMM Foundation Fundraiser - Powell's Sweet Shoppe!

Our good friend Elizabeth Rait has put together an amazing fundraiser at Powell's Sweet Shoppe TODAY, 12/14/2011!!! Just go click H E R E for all the details. Make sure you print up a flyer and bring it in to Powell's Sweet Shoppe, 720 Mcclelland Drive in Windsor, and 20% of your purchase will be donated to Jon's foundation!!!

A special thanks to Elizabeth, Hulk Helping Hearts and all the people involved in raising funds for our son's next surgery. If you have any questions, e-mail us at jmmfoundation@gmail.com. Also, if you can't make the event, you can always donate with the button on the top right of this screen!!!

We hope to see you all at Powell's tomorrow. Have a happy holiday season!!

Hulk Helping Hearts

I just wanted to give a VERY special shout out to this amazing group of people who have started Hulk Helping Hearts: Jessica LaVenter, Joshua Cox, Tye and Bobbie Rivera, and ALL of the Hulksters, their friends and family, and the general Anytime Fitness community. You all give us so much hope and faith in the inherent goodness of humanity, it is a really beautiful thing.

A quick reminder that, if you haven't already, you should go to the Zumbathon and Bake Sale Facebook Event page and learn all about this amazing event that Hulk Helping Hearts is putting on for Jon Michael. If you can't make it, don't fret! You can always donate at the upper right corner of this page. Please specify in the note section of the donation page if you would like us to send you one of the AWESOME Hulk Helping Hearts bracelets that you will see below!!!!! A donation of $5 or more is eligible for a bracelet!!!!!

I really wanted to try and highlight how amazing this support for our son is. These pictures are a small sample of how FRIGGIN' AWESOME this community around us in. We love you all!!!!!

 Josh Cox, Tye Rivera and Amanda Valle

 Amanda Martin

 Brandon Hallengren

 Bud Hulk

 Cara Tocchini, Repping the Awesome 80's

 Carlo Piscitello

 Chris Keys

 Bracelet close-up

 Jeff Martin

 From left to right: Bobbi Rivera, Jessica LaVenter, Josh Cox, Kim Yoxall and Tye Rivera

 Jon Hallengren

 The Stud Muffin himself, Jon Michael Martin

 HULK Himself, Joshua Cox

 Kids for Hulk Helping Hearts!!!

 Mike Mazanec and Holly Hanson

 Paul Larsen

 Sharon Hallengren

 Gill Clan and Sierra and Joey Balkin

 Tammy Larsen and Josh Cox

 Hulk Girls for Hulk Helping Hearts!

Teygan Mason


Love to you all and have a great Sunday!!!!!

ZUMBATHON AND BAKE SALE!

Hello everyone!!! I just wanted to put out a quick reminder that our wonderful, amazing friends at Anytime Fitness are putting on a Zumbathon and Bake Sale on Sunday, October 16th, from 12:00 to 3:00 pm at Anytime Fitness in Santa Rosa!!! You can RSVP to the event on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=209885999073721!!!

Again, so many thanks to Tye and Bobbi Rivera, Jessica Laventer, Joshua Cox and so many others for making this possible and for helping us raise money for our son. We love you all!!! If you have any questions about the event, feel free to e-mail jmmfoundation@gmail.com for information!!!

Long Overdue

It's amazing how quickly time can pass. I have been derelict in my duties of keeping this blog up to date. That will be rectified immediately.

Jon is doing amazing. Through your prayers, hopes and even your fleeting thoughts, he has been able to buck every norm. They told us he would be in the hospital for 3-4 weeks after surgery...he was out in 6 days after surgery. They told us that he would need his feeding tube indefinitely...he has had it out for over a week now and is eating on his own like a champ. He is an incredible testament to all that is amazing in humanity.

Our amazing family in the Hulk bootcamps at Anytime Fitness in Santa Rosa have come together to create a very special event to help raise money for Jon Michael's next surgery. As I outlined in a previous blog post, our out-of-pocket expenses for this next surgery are going to be (to us) astronomical. I would like to send a special heart-felt thanks to Joshua Cox, Jessiva Laventer and Tye and Bobbie Rivera for helping to organize the first of many events that will be held to help our family make sure that Jon Michael's care will remain unparalleled in excellence and modernity.

The event can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=209885999073721. If you are not able to make the event but want to donate, there is always a link up at the top of this blog that goes straight to The Jon Michael Martin Foundation.

Again, thank you to everyone for your love, thoughts and prayers. Our son will one day throw a party for all of you in thanks. Or...at least I will, and I'll let him know why he's paying for it. ;)

Heart Catheter

Guys aren't supposed to cry. We're especially not supposed to lose it. You all know what I'm talking about...that uncontrollable sob that creeps up in the back of your throat like an AA meeting ready to vacate the premises because the coffee guy didn't show up.

We all have a front. I found out today that my front is my indifference. It was an interesting realization.

As I posted on Facebook earlier, the heart catheter procedure was delayed about 2 hours. That gave me ample time to be pissed off at something innocuous instead of admitting that I was incredibly scared about what my son was waiting to go through. It's so interesting how much more aware he is now. It definitely makes all of this a lot harder.


The poor little guy hadn't eaten for 16 hours when we finally were able to get him into his hospital gown and prepare for the surgery. I was hoping that I would get to scrub in and be with him until he was put to sleep, but the anesthesiologist gently made me aware that my being there would take complete focus off their primary objective: Jon Michael. I have a feeling that this wasn't the first time she played to someone's emotions so that her job would run smoothly. Can't say that I blame her.

Amanda and I were able to walk him down to the heart catheter O.R. This procedure was actually done at Stanford Medical which shares multiple entrances with LPCH (Lucille Packard Children's Hospital). When we got to the still swinging doors, we both kissed and hugged him and cried on him and handed him over to the able hands of the heart catheter team.

There really aren't words to describe how hard it is to walk away from your child...especially when you know something he or she doesn't. Like how they're about to get a catheter shoved up a major vein and have various dyes spurt into their heart so that pictures can be taken.

All things considered, everything went really well. We found out that Jon Michael will be a prime candidate for the Glenn Shunt that he is scheduled for on Friday. I have the distinct feeling that I'm taking this a lot harder than he is.


I finally broke down today. I had kept up a pretty good front and been strong for Amanda which, at the end of the day, is any spouse's job. Where one fails, the other must persevere. It's the only way a relationship works. Watching my son writhing on the recovery table, red as a cherry from screaming and having to have morphine shoved in his IV to calm him down...it wasn't the same when he was five weeks old. He was still a person...but he didn't yet have personality. Everything's changed, yet everything's stayed the same.

Life moves in mysterious ways. I guess all we can really do is make sure that we have a life vest when the canoe tips over.

As I type this, I'm sitting next to the little guy at 3West, the third floor of LPCH. Hopefully we will get to take him back to the hotel tomorrow night so we can spend some much needed face time with him before open heart surgery on Friday.

Thank you all again for your prayers and thoughts for Jon Michael. All three of us are blessed to have your support and love. We are still trying to raise some money for the hotel, since we really don't know how long we're going to be here and Ronald McDonald has pretty much ruled out any chance at our staying there any time in the next month, so if you know anyone who might want to donate or you'd like to post this blog on your favorite social media site, we would be very appreciative.

I hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow and we will keep you updated on his surgery schedule.

~Jeff Martin