GIVING BACK

Handmacher Sauces donates 5% of all online sales to the Danny Did Foundation and Sadie McCann Fund!

Effective immediately, our little sauce business will be donating five percent of our online sales to charities that are close to our hearts, The Sadie McCann Fund and the Danny Did Foundation. As most of our customers know, we started the hot sauce business so Eric could spend more time with Melody, as he was missing out on so many milestones we were initially told she would never meet. When he’s not making sauce he’s homeschooling and doing therapies and taking her to garden centers to pick out small plants to grow. This has also allowed Janey the time to work remotely helping the elderly/disabled population with public benefits, and when she’s not doing that, she’s managing the website and marketing. As a family business, we’ve hit our stride, and while we are still a very small business, we are blessed beyond belief and know it’s time to help these two charities help other families as they have helped ours.

When Melody was just under three years old, after 18 months of seizure freedom, her seizures returned and if they were going to happen, would happen when she was transitioning from sleep to wake. We would not ever sleep soundly because we needed to be listening for the specific noise she would make when having a seizure. Melody has a rare form of epilepsy and is at risk for SUDEP, so we needed a better plan and found out about the Danny Did Foundation who helps people navigate which seizure monitor would be the best fit. We applied for a grant for a seizure monitor called the SAMi and were approved. This device has saved Melody’s life countless times as it alerts us to movements in the middle of the night and we can go to her room to help her through the seizure. Having this device also gives us peace of mind and reassurance that if she needs us, we will be there for her, and that lets us rest at night which is so crucial. It allows us to go out and live our lives like Danny did when he was here. For more information on the Danny Did Foundation, please visit their website: www.dannydid.org. Make sure to read about Danny and why the foundation exists. We know our donations will go directly towards awareness, seizure detection technology, and to families like ours.

These past two years have been rough on the little ones. Melody’s preschool went full remote in March 2020 and she had a drive-by graduation. While it was touching and considered the new normal at that time, it certainly wasn’t ideal. When it came time to start school and there was no good plan in place to meet her needs for kindergarten, we decided to homeschool her while the world figures this out. We wanted to keep her therapies in place and have a schedule she can count on, and we have done that and she’s excelling in reading, writing, math, and comprehension. The one thing we didn’t have was a safe place for her to do climbing and balancing, so we reached out to the Sadie McCann Fund who helps Aicardi Syndrome families. We were approved for a grant which covered a climber, two gym mats, a crash pad, a swing, and respite care funds. This is not something we could have done on our own with the rising costs of just living, and the Sadie McCann Fund made it possible for Melody to have a climber in her own room and safety under it just in case she falls. We are so grateful to this charity and knew this would be one of the two that we chose to give back to. We love seeing photos and reading stories of how the funds are put to use with other Aicardi Syndrome families, and love that our sauce business will help them continue to do so. For more information about the Sadie McCann Fund, visit their website: www.sadiemccannfund.org. You will see our sweet Melody on the list of previous recipients, along with so many others who have benefited from this fund.

We will not be raising prices, everything will stay the same for our customers, but know that when you purchase from Handmacher Sauces, not only are you buying the best sauce on the market, you're giving back too, through us.