30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 7

Day 7: Which one, which one...? Otherwise known as the post where Briana really opens up about some things that have been on her mind and heart for the last few months.

Will you listen to me rant passionately for a minute? I hope you will. I hope you haven't tuned me out yet. For this one month we are going to be passionate, loud, and persistent. Our kids deserve it. YOUR kids or future kids or grandchildren or nieces or nephews deserve it - because you never know when it could be them. Cancer can happen to anyone - really! We never in a million years thought we'd be in this world. I hope, so far this month, you haven't rolled your eyes at us and said, "Ugh, not again. When will they shut up about all this already?!" I hope you're still reading our blog and considering the things we're sharing and not just skipping over these posts because they are "too sad" or "boring" or "too hard" or "not applicable to you", etc.

I beg you to care about these things.

To pick ONE thing this month - something as simple as changing your profile picture, wearing a gold ribbon, re-posting a fact or event on your own blog/facebook - to do to help us raise awareness and ultimately find all the brave little cancer fighters in the world FIND A CURE!

I know (believe me, I know - we are involved helping with a lot of different organizations at the moment and I'm sure feeling the burnout) that no one can possibly do every single one of the things we are posting about this month. We're not posting these ideas expecting people to go crazy doing each one or to feel guilty because they can't. Instead, we are trying to be a resource for people looking to help in some way. And we're trying to be a voice for all the little fighters in the world who can't speak for themselves. We are offering a wide gamut of ideas of things that will help, in order to make it easier for people to get involved.

So, now that that rant is over :), let me get on to the rest of the point of this post. Over the last year and a half since Elena was diagnosed, we have slowly become aware/been getting involved with more and more organizations: the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Make A Wish, St. Baldricks, HopeKids, CureSearch, the Red Cross, Camp Hobe, Candlelighters, the American Cancer Society, Alex's Lemonade Stand, etc, etc. There are so many great ones out there - many of them have given us a lot of hope, good distractions, and helpful information. We've participated in various "walks", fundraisers, drives, activities, and so forth. As we have gone along and learned more about the different groups we have started to learn how to weed through them and discover which ones are more worthwhile/relevant to our cause.

Knowing that we all have a limited amount of time and resources, the question then arises: which one(s) do we support? Several people have told us, "We want to help you and support some of these great causes, but we have a finite amount of resources and can't support all of them. Which ones would you guys care most about us supporting?" So, here are some answers.

***And please note: these are just our suggestions for those who care to know. We know there are many, many worthy causes out there and you may have others that you want to support instead. I just know that before Elena was diagnosed, I really wanted to serve more and find a good "cause" to work for, but I didn't have ANY CLUE where to start. Now, I have been thrown into some causes that I care very passionately about and so I'm providing this information for other people who may be in the same boat as I was and not know where to start. This is just a guide for people who care about our opinion and want to support Childhood Cancer and other support organizations for children with critical/life threatening illnesses. Or even if you have other causes you support and you have a few extra pennies to throw in the childhood cancer direction. Because if I've learned one thing along the way, it's that I need you to support the things I care about and you need me to support the things you care about.***

SO...

Walks

Our top organization to support is, without question, CureSearch. Our number one priority in the work we do is to find a cure for childhood cancers. The madness has to end - kids need to stop losing years of their childhoods to chemotherapy treatments and after treatment side effects. And they need to stop dying! We have to reach the day when every child is guaranteed a cure.

What's changed? Last year we made a big fundraising push for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's "Light the Night Walk" - although we will participate form time to time at the LTN walk (like this year when Elena is one of their "honored patients"), we will no longer be fundraising for that walk. Instead our big fundraising efforts for the year will go to the Salt Lake City CureSearch Walk. CureSearch is a better fit for our family's situation - an astounding 96% of all money raised goes directly to research for childhood cancers! That is unheard of in the cancer fundraising world. Although we think that LLS does many worthwhile things (patient support, physician, patient, and community education, research for blood cancers and lymphomas), only 7% of their money raised goes toward childhood cancer. (It is the same with the American Cancer Society and other similar organizations - less than 10% goes to childhood cancer - which is our focus.) If you are going to donate to one of our "walks", we ask that it be to CureSearch.

Patient Support Organizations

This is a toughie because pretty much every organization I mentioned is absolutely stellar - Make A Wish, HopeKids, Candlelighters, Camp Hobe. However, coming in at a close second to CureSearch are: Make A Wish and HopeKids. These are the other two organizations that we will be trying to fundraise for and support over the years.

We love HopeKids! Although we have only been able to participate in a relatively few activities so far, we are so grateful for the fun, the break from the ordinary, and the connection to other families like us that HopeKids has provided. Elena gets to participate in things in the "real world" like going to movies or gymnastics clinics or museums or parties that she wouldn't otherwise when she is immuno-compromised. Two and a half years is a long time to miss out on all those things. So, we are so grateful for the work HopeKids does!

Most of you have read about our Make A Wish trip and our feelings about MAW. We can't express how much we love MAW and the incredible impact that they have had on our lives. The gift they give to critically ill children and their families is priceless. It was just the medicine we all needed. We are so grateful for what it has done for Elena - she mentions something about her Make A Wish trip or Disneyworld or her wishgranters everyday. We want to work hard for the rest of our lives to try and repay some of the incredible kindness we were shown and to try and make the magic of MAW possible for other children in need.

What's Changed? Nothing really. :) Just letting you know that we think these are super worthwhile organizations to support. I'll be posting a few events coming up for both of these organizations that you can get involved with - be on the lookout.

Other Causes

Each year we'll be trying to hold a blood drive on Elena's diagnosis anniversary (March 18th or somwhere close to that), so save your blood for us in March! :) On the "bigger" anniversary dates - 5 years, 10 years, etc. we are thinking we'll hold a big shindig like we did last year on her first anniversary with a large service project and blood drive.

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Thanks for going along with us on this ride as we've experimented with different things and tried to figure out the best fit for our family. Your support has meant the world to us! We know we've posted about an awful lot of stuff over the last little while. It's been a busy fundraising year - well no, actually a busy nine months!- for us between our LTN walk, Day of Hope project, CureSearch walk, etc. Quite frankly, we are a little burned out and we know some of you are a little burned out and probably have started cringing when you see us coming. Ha. :) Now that we've had time to set the record straight we hope it'll be easier for everyone who wants to be involved. We can't do it alone and we really appreciate your support! If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask us.

*(If you missed the intro to "30 days, 30 ways", click here [and scroll towards the bottom of the post] to find out what it is.)