9/17/10 - Wow

I haven't a way to express this post, so that will be today's title. Wow.

Our family was invited to go to the Huntsman Cancer Institute to present grant money to two research leaders with a rep from Alex's Lemonade Stand today, who flew out from Pennsylvania to come to our stand and deliver the grant money. They awarded them $300,000.

It was a full circle moment for us. The researchers were so kind, and sincere, and grateful for what we are doing. We got to thank them, and they got to thank us. We recognize how important they are, and they recognize how important we are, in our own ways. We saw that we are all just human beings performing within our capacity to perform, trying to fight this beast together. Wow. Right?

They work every day to better the treatment, to improve survival rates, to make the chemo less harsh, to find out why our kids get cancer. Every day. Fighting cancer. Just like Brinley, only on a different level.

The NCI (National Cancer Institute) funds cancer research according to population affected. When you compare childrens cancers to adult cancers, you can guess who gets the bulk of the research money. Frustrating, but reality. This is truly a grassroots effort. If you give $10, or $100, or $1, and we have enough people give whatever donation they can, we can meet our goal of $10,000. That $10,000 doesn't do a whole lot by itself, but if people do that all over the place, you get to award grants to the most promising research of amounts like $300,000. From LEMONADE STANDS! They have raised over $30 million for research from lemonade stands.

David and I have the passion. We can put this together just by pure adrenaline from watching our child suffer through this, not to mention the children we see so often (ok and a REALLY dedicated and awesome committee). But I can't give $10,000. My goal is to share our story enough to help somehow, to get someone to give a little to a cause that is the #1 cause of death by disease in children. Childhood cancer.

Bottom line is this: I WANT TO KICK CANCER'S BUTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let's all do it together!

Jen, the rep from Alex's Lemonade Stand presenting the checks to the researchers


At least Taylor is smiling.



My fave, Brinley with the researcher who just got a $200,000 grant for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia research, which is her cancer. The one who wants to save lives, and the one whose life is threatened. Love it, absolutely love this picture.

We got a tour of the Huntsman Center. They had rows and rows of research like this. Awesome.

Remember, you can donate online at www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/67204. You can also text to donate and automatic $10. Just text "Lemonade E67204" to 85944 and it will automatically be charged to your phone bill. How easy is that, huh??