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Breakfast with Santa benefits Connor Cares Foundation

Ledo's Pizza opened its doors at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning to find a line full of families eager to take part in their first Breakfast with Santa. Santa and his elves kept busy as children shared their Christmas wish lists and received a candy cane in return.

A portion of the proceeds from the breakfast were donated to the Connor Cares Foundation, which was founded by the Freed family to honor their 5-year-old son who lost his life when he drowned at a community pool in 2006. The foundation strives to further the education and training of lifesaving personnel at public and private pools and also supports legislation to mandate life-saving defibrillators at swimming pools.

The entire Freed family attended the event and Debbie, Connor's mom and president of the foundation, was thrilled with the turnout at the breakfast. Debbie said that it was Ledo's owner Scott Taggart's idea to add the charitable component to the breakfast and she was honored that he offered to team up with the Connor Cares Foundation. The Freed's daughter Emma, 1, enjoyed the breakfast but was a little skeptical about spending time on Santa's lap. Connor's dad Tom and sister Brittany, 19, who designed and maintain the Connor Cares Web site, attended the breakfast as well.

Girls hold fundraiser for Connor Cares Foundation

Katie Weber, Natalie Clark, Brittany Weber, and Nicole Stark recently gave up their free time to sell lemonade and golf balls for the Connor Cares Foundation. The girls came up with the idea on their own and one of the mothers called me the night before to let me know what the girls wanted to do for Connor. The girls were located on the 6th hole of the Crofton Country Club and Eton Way. They used the funds to donate to their swim a-thon money as well as the CCF! They raised over $100 for Connor Cares! We appreciate you so much!

Connor Cares donates defibrillator to Walden Country Club

(Photo, from left to right are: Debbie Neagle-Freed, Matthew Radolec, Denny Neagle Sr., Tom Murphy and Ilene Murphy).

Tom Murphy is the President of the Walden Community and their pool abides by the Connor Law; even though it is not an official law yet. They always have 2 or more lifeguards on duty at all times. A child in distress in the water was saved this summer because they were abiding by the law. Tom and Ilene Murphy go above and beyond the call of duty and are very diligent and strict with the way their pool is managed.

Connor Cares presents check to ISR

Debbie Neagle-Freed presents a check to Infant Swimming Resource instructor, Tracey Hurst, of Annapolis, MD, who teaches life-saving techniques to infants and toddlers. Since 1966, ISR has safely delivered over 7 million lessons to teach water self-rescue skills to more than 177,224 babies and has educated parents and medical experts nationwide on water safety techniques and proven instruction methods. To date, ISR has 788 documented cases of children using ISR techniques to save themselves from drowning.