Wed. July 25th
Prayers and Support Needed
I’d like to introduce you to Rocco DiGuglielmo. Rocco is a 5 year old PA boy who was recently diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). Many families have told me how much it means to them when the B+ Nation shows up on their Caringbridge or Facebook pages to shower them with prayers and encouraging messages. As I said on Caringbridge when we were in the hospital, all of the people ‘out there’ who were praying for and supporting us were not ‘strangers’. They were ‘friends that we hadn’t met yet’. Please be a friend to Rocco and his family by taking a few minutes to visit his FB page at the link below. Let’s show the DiGuglielmos some serious B+ love!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pray-for-Rocco/394660807247627
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Summer Baseball League to Benefit The B+ Foundation
If you love baseball and live in or near NCCo, DE, sign up for Summerball. Games are played at Doyle Field in Hockessin every Wed. and Sat. at 6pm in July and August. It’s very casual, players can come as often as they’d like. You just pay $5/game which covers your shirt, umpires, balls, and a donation to The B+ Foundation. The league is open to all players aged 13-17. Contact Brad Sams at BSamsNoon@hotmail.com.
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IronMan to Fight Childhood Cancer
Eric Suro, of the Lehigh Valley in PA, is training for a special kind of triathlon. He is organizing a one man triathlon to benefit The B+ Foundation. Eric will start off by swimming 2.4 miles across a lake, hop on his bike and ride 112 miles down to Delaware, at which point he will put on his running shoes and run a FULL 26.2 mile marathon ending at Klondike Kate’s restaurant in Newark, DE. Do the math…that’s 140.6 miles!!! Everyone is invited to join us for the celebratory party at Klondike Kate’s after he arrives. The date is Sat. Oct. 6th…put it on your calendars now. What is so especially cool about this is that we didn’t even know Eric until he reached out to us and said he wants to help fight childhood cancer. Eric, you’re an inspiration, a role model, and you challenge all of us to think about how we can use our gifts, talents, and interests to make a difference in this battle against childhood cancers. Thank you so much!
https://www.facebook.com/suroman2012
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Bone Marrow Drives DO Work
I got an email from a friend this evening sharing with me the good news about a successful bone marrow donation. Susan & Rick’s daughter, Casey, passed away in a similar fashion to Andrew, and just a few months following Andrew’s passing. Susan, Rick, and their daughters and friends organized a bone marrow registration drive and one of Casey’s friend was determined to be a match. All the additional testing went well and Casey’s friend made the bone marrow transfer today. You may notice that I used the word “successful” in describing the donation. You may say that it’s too soon to tell if the patient will go into remission and live a long and healthy life. You’re right. A Philadelphia television reporter, Dave Huddleston, mentioned to me one day that he was a bone marrow donor, but that it ‘failed’…because the patient lived only a short time. I said to Dave that day that his donation did not ‘fail’. If you could have given me an extra 2, 4, 6 months with Andrew, I would have been indebted to you forever. We’ve got to fight for today and what Casey’s friend did today was to give a patient a better chance at living an extra day and she gave the family a most precious gift, HOPE! Getting on the bone marrow registry is so easy. And, the primary method of taking the bone marrow anymore in NOT through the pelvic bone. And, while I haven’t had the honor and privilege of donating yet (I’ve been on the Registry for 24 years), I pray that I will someday get the call. To me, it will truly be like winning the Powerball…only better. Please get on the Registry today. Visit: http://www.dkmsamericas.org/
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Introductions
Because of your generosity, support, and passion, The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation has grown to be a badly needed national resource for families of kids battling cancer and researchers searching for cures and more gentler treatment protocols. In 2011, we gave out over $500,000 to families in 49 states (can’t seem to help anyone in Wyoming for some reason) and nearly $300,000 in research assistance. I am very proud of what WE have accomplished and I report this to you with all humility. And, we have worked arm-in-arm with so many amazingly passionate and dedicated childhood cancer organizations across the country through our participation in groups like PAC2, PC, and the Alliance for Childhood Cancer, to name a few.
But, it’s a tall mountain that we have to climb. And, I am extremely passionately impatient. We must do more for our kids and we must do it now.
To that end, I’d like to introduce you to two young ladies who are going to help us make this happen. Nadine Mitchell has replaced Katie Wilson as Program Director working here in Wilmington with me at ‘world headquarters’ (aka our house). I proudly report to you that we work out of my house. You will be hard pressed to find a leaner organization who shepherds your donations more carefully than us. In 2011, $.90 of every dollar spent was spent on our mission of fighting childhood cancers. For perspective, conventional wisdom states that if an organization can report that they are spending $.80 on the dollar for their mission, they are a very lean and efficient organization and one worthy of your support. I am very proud to report that we are at $.90 on the dollar. Nadine is a graduate of UC Davis and her primary responsibility will be to export our successful college events to other campuses around the country. If you are a college student (or parent/grandparent of one) and are interested in bringing a B+ event to your school, please contact Nadine at Nadine@BePositive.org.
Additionally, please join me in welcoming Carly Bergstein, who joined us this past Monday. Carly and I share two alma maters. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Fordham University in New York City. Carly is a veteran of many “UDance” events at Delaware and she will be working out of New York City with responsibility for increasing our presence in NY on college campuses and other strategic partnerships. Through the kindness of one of our supporters, we will be commandeering one of his cubicles in his New York City office rent-free! You can’t beat that price. For those of you with ties to NYC, if you can think of ways to help us succeed in the city, please don’t hesitate to contact me or Carly at Carly@BePositive.org . It’s going to be an exciting next year with Nadine and Carly on board!
Make today a great day.
B+
Ali & Andrew’s Dad