Thurs. March 31st
I want to share with you an exciting piece of legislation that was introduced on March 18th by Sen. Bob Casey (PA). It’s called the “Creating Hope Act” and what makes this legislation so interesting is that it does not require funding; critical in our current economic and political climate. A childhood cancer fighting organization, Kids v Cancer, was instrumental in drafting this very creative act. Let’s hope it passes both houses of Congress and gets signed by the President.
Pasted below is a brief summary of the Creating Hope Act from Kids v Cancer:
“The Creating Hope Act of 2011 has bi-partisan support in the house and senate; and does not require an appropriation. It is modeled after a law that passed to bring research and development to assist a similar group of orphaned patients: persons suffering from rare tropical diseases. Here is a brief summary of how it works: If a drug company develops and gets FDA approval of a drug targeted for a Rare Pediatric Disease, including pediatric cancer, they will get a “prize.” They will be awarded a voucher for FDA fast-track approval of a second, unrelated drug. They can then use this voucher to speed up FDA review of a blockbuster drug (e.g. hair loss, acid re-flux, impotence- whatever will sell). They will be allowed to sell or transfer the voucher to a different company an unlimited number of times – making the voucher very valuable. Finally drug companies will have an incentive to help kids with cancer!” This voucher has been valued by an independent organization to be worth $200-$300 million!
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Don’t forget – come out to Johnnie’s Dog House (Concord Pike, Wilmington) tomorrow to celebrate the start of the Phillies season. Johnnie’s has a goal of selling 2,011 hot dogs and $1 from each sale will go to The B+ Foundation. For those of you (like me) who don’t eat meat on Fridays in Lent, come by, join the fun, and buy 5-10 hot dogs and put them in the fridge for Saturday!!! 🙂 That’s my plan. Alternatively, they have veggie dogs, veggie burgers, and other good stuff.
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Two weeks from Saturday is our inaugural “B+ College Classic” soccer tournament. Participating teams include the U.S. Naval Academy, Maryland, Delaware, Villanova, Temple, Lehigh, Princeton, and Monmouth. We will have two brackets – the men will play in “The Andrew McDonough Bracket” and the ladies in “The Amy Stevens Bracket”. Amy was a friend of Andrew’s and a standout soccer player in Delaware who tragically died in a car accident last October at the age of 16. The tournament will run from 10am-3:30pm at Kirkwood Soccer Complex in New Castle, DE. WSTW will be broadcasting live from the tournament and you’ll get a great opportunity to see high level soccer while helping to increase awareness and funding for our fight against childhood cancer. Admission is only $10 and you get to watch as many games as you want.
We still need volunteers for the B+ College Classic, so if you’re able to give us a few hours, we’d very much appreciate it. Please contact me at joe@livelikeandrew.org.
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Live Like Andrew – have you made a difference in the life of at least one person today?
B+
Ali’s & Andrew’s Dad