A Whole Lot of Random Stuff :)
Once again, my apologies for not posting more frequently. It's been a busy start to the year here at The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation.
Family Assistance
I'm so glad that the government shutdown is over (for now, at least). This may come as a surprise to you, but it impacted us because we had families of kids with cancer who were not getting their paychecks from the government. We had a federal government employee whose daughter has cancer and was at risk for being evicted. We helped them fairly recently and made an exception under the circumstances, and helped them again so that they would have one less worry.
Legislation
House Bill 23 (HB 23) was introduced in the Delaware General Assembly in early January by Rep. Kim Williams. Along with Charter School of Wilmington grad (and current Boston College student) Minnie Proud, B+ Hero Mom Jackie Higgins (with B+ Hero Emily), I had the privilege of testifying in support of this bill. HB 23 would allow Delawareans to donate all or a portion of their state tax refund to The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation to fight childhood cancer. I'm very hopeful that this will pass the Delaware House and Senate and be signed by the Governor. On our visit to Dover, we stopped in on Gov. John Carney, a supporter of The B+ Foundation. It sure would be nice to have a B+ check box on every state's tax return.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you to the DelVal BMW Club and Martin Dealerships for your continued support.
Thank you to everyone who supported our World Cancer Day campaign this week. I was AMAZED that we received $48,760.26! Thank you!!!
On a personal note, thank you very much for all of the kind and supportive messages to me and my family last week. January 29th is a hard day as are all of the days around it. January 29th marked 12 years since our world imploded as Andrew went from a seemingly healthy kid to a child with cancer and in cardiac arrest.
State of the Union
For those of you who watched last night's State of the Union (SOTU), you heard Pres. Trump pledge an incremental $500 million dollars to fight childhood cancer. You may have wondered what to make of that. Me too! It's great that he included it in his speech and it will be outstanding if it comes to fruition. A whole lot has to happen before we see any incremental money and we anxiously await the release of the President's Budget next month and subsequent discussions, if any, with Congress. Fingers crossed.
Proud to be,
Ali & Andrew's Dad