[Powderworks] NMOC: Sponsor me for the Pan-Mass Challenge!
Kate
kate@dnki.net
Fri, 09 May 2003 22:47:43 -0400
Dear Fellow P'workers,
I thought I'd take advantage of the recent activity on the list to do some
shameless fundraising - particularly since I dissed golf in the name of
this cycling event last spring.
As many of you know, I'm a pretty avid cyclist. Lazy, but avid. At the
beginning of August I will join three-thousand other cyclists in
Sturbridge, Massachusetts for a two-day, nearly two-hundred mile journey to
Provincetown with the Pan-Mass Challenge. I am asking for your sponsorship
for this important fundraising event for the Dana Farber Cancer Center's
Jimmy Fund.
The Pan-Mass Challenge annually raises over $16,000,000 - and then hands
over more than 92% of the take to the Jimmy Fund. It accounts for nearly
half the Jimmy Fund budget. The Jimmy Fund, founded by Dr. Sydney Farber
in 1948, funds both research and care at the Jimmy Fund Clinic. Designed
specifically for the comfort and convenience of pediatric cancer patients
and their families, the Jimmy Fund Clinic follows Farber's "total patient
care" philosophy, assuring that a patient's psychological, family and
spiritual needs, as well as their medical needs, are met. The clinic cares
for children from all over the northeast and even all over the world. For
more information go to http://www.jimmyfund.org/
As an environmental public health scientist, not to mention precautionary
principle aficionado and anti-nuclear activist, I professionally strive to
change the environmental conditions in the world that lead to the
development of such horrible diseases as childhood cancer. Yet even if we
one day manage to remove all cancer causing agents from the environment,
there will still be kids who will develop cancer - kids who will need
treatment and psychological, social, and family support.
I considered doing the Pan-Mass Challenge for the past two years, but there
was always some excuse or even damn good reason getting in the way. This
year I will ride in consideration of my dear friend Joe, his wife Julie,
and in memory of their daughter Megan. Megan was like a dandelion -
bright, ever present, and tenacious - yet ephemeral all the same. She died
in early December after a long battle with brain cancer, ten days shy of
her second birthday - so I was already crying pretty hard when I found out
the Oils had called it a day too. The night she died I dreamed that I had
sewed her a dandelion dress and took her to a park. She ran away over a
hill and all that was left was fluff on the wind. As I ride this double
century in her honor I will certainly see many, many dandelions to remind
me of my mission and speed me on my way.
The link to pledge on line is http://www.pmc.org/egifts/ and I am rider
number KA0041. Thank you in advance for your kind support.
With love for all,
Kate