Wed. June 1st
Last weekend, Ali and I went to Lime Rock, CT to be with Al Carter, Hugh Plumb, and the B+ Race Team. Ali and I got a chance to take a ‘hot lap’ – a trip around the track in a BMW driven by a professional driver. WOW! It was amazing. Ali staffed a table in the paddock (garage area) where she gave out information about the team, the Foundation, B+ Racing gear, and accepted donations. And, of course, she spent two days re-telling the story about Andrew and our difficult journey. She did an AMAZING job! I was -and am- SO proud of her. As a result of her passion, she also received over $1,000 in donations to support our mission to fight childhood cancers.
The two true highlights of the weekend were the visit to a children’s hospital in Hartford, CT. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to join Ali, Al, Hugh, and Emmanuel (the team’s Marketing Director) for that visit, but I heard it was amazing. The second highlight was meeting Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor, Cameron Merritt, and his family (www.caringbridge.org/visit/cameronmerritt ) . The Merritts came to the race and it was a real honor meeting them. As you know, driver Al Carter is also a Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor.
I often worry that our supporters are going to think that we are using their donations for the race car sponsorships. Sponsoring a race car, while a tremendous awareness ‘vehicle’ (no pun intended) is a very expensive undertaking. Not one penny of your donations is going to support the B+ Racing Program. The B+ logo is all over the car thanks to the personal generosity of Al Carter. And, thanks to the kindness and willingness of Al & Hugh, we’re putting a TON of smiles on the faces of little kids in the hospitals. And, believe it or not, the B+ Racing Program is also generating donations to support our cause. It is a WIN all the way around!
Also thanks to Al, the race at New Jersey Motorsports Park on July 23rd will be called “The B+ Foundation Heroes 200”. We’ve got a lot of big plans for that week. If you’re in the NJ-PA-DE area, please mark your calendars and plan to join us on July 23rd. If racing isn’t enough to motivate you, we’re trying to arrange to have a visit from fellow racer, actor, and heartthrob, Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey. Can’t promise it, but we’re working on it. Shortly, we will be unveiling a promotion whereby a donation to The B+ Foundation will earn you free tickets to the race. Stay tuned!
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As you can imagine, we have been very busy since the announcement that The B+ Foundation is the primary beneficiary of Northwestern University’s Dance Marathon (NUDM) 2012. In 2011, NUDM raised over $1,000,000. Seventy charities from around the country applied and The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation was selected as the Primary Beneficiary, which means that we will receive 90% of the net proceeds. This will do SO much for us in accelerating our research support and helping even more families battling childhood cancer around the country.
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I know this is a busy time for many with graduations and school ending, but I’d like to make a plea to everyone to start thinking about our “5th Annual B+ Fighting Childhood Cancer 5k Run/Walk” to be held on Thurs. June 16th at Salesianum. Last year, we had over 2,400 participants (runners & walkers) and approximately 1,000 spectators. In 2010, we raised $112,000 and we’re shooting for $120,000 this year. Right now, we’re at $50,000, so we need to get the word out. If you haven’t signed up, please click on the link below — sign up and “Send 10” – 10 solicitation emails (you’ll find it on the team page) to your friends and family. If you’re already on a team, please send out some more emails. The need is great. I don’t see many school, sports teams, or swim teams set up yet. Let’s see if we can get 5 of each by next week. Thank you!
https://www.elleevance.com/BPos2011/EventLandingPage.aspx
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I was very touched when I got a call from my Mother and she said that her priest (Fr. Greg Corrigan) at Mass on Sunday spoke about Andrew from the altar. Fr. Corrigan has been a good friend to us and was of great support when we were in the hospital. He told the congregation that he “visited Andrew when he was ‘on the cross’ ” at A.I. duPont Hospital. I thought that was such an interesting choice of words. He was not saying, of course, that Andrew is Jesus, but there certainly is a parallel to the suffering.
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Speaking of interesting phrasing, Ali and I attended Chapel Service at the track last Sunday. A very accomplished Rolex Series driver, Terry Borcheller, led the service. Terry was talking about the distractions of life and how busy everyone feels their lives are. What he said next was so simple and so true. He said that we need to “invite God into our lives”. It’s so easy to put the other earthly things in the front of our minds and just assume that God will always be there regardless. It only takes a few seconds to “invite God into our lives”. Terry, thanks for your insight. I don’t know if it helped anyone else, but it was a good reminder for me.
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Live Like Andrew – put others first.
B+
Ali and Andrew’s Dad