How many must be lost?

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

~ Robert Frost

The donation arrived quietly with but one sentence accompanying it:

In memory of my father who passed away from cancer in 1998.

And I instantly felt ashamed. Embarrassed. Because I didn't know. I didn't know she had lost her father. I didn't know her family struggled and cried and begged and pleaded and mourned and lost. Oh, how that family must have lost.

I started thinking about her - younger than me, kinder than me, sweeter than me. Married with two beautiful children. Two children her father never got to meet. A son-in-law; did he ever get to meet the man his daughter would marry?

Cancer steals.

Cancer steals experiences and steals memories that ought to be made.

And I'm tired of it.

I'm sick and tired of cancer stealing dads away from daughters, and grandfathers away from grandsons.

I'm tired of cancer stealing children away from their parents and spouses away from their loved ones.

I'm tired of cancer stealing the sweet, peaceful slumber we're all meant to enjoy and forcing good people to lay awake scared, afraid, choking back sobs.

I'm tired of cancer stealing money that was meant for a brand new birthday bike that now has to be spent on chemotherapy treatments that make her beautiful hair fall out in clumps and makes her too sick to even celebrate her 6th year of life.

I'm tired of this thief who gets away with murder time and time again.

And then I look around and realize that cancer hasn't won. Because we haven't given up and given in. We've gathered in numbers and we've gathered in strength and together we're fighting like mad.

We fight in memory of our fathers.

We fight in honor of those we have lost and those we are afraid of losing.

And we won't ever back down.

The Fight Ain't Over Yet!

“I truly believe that we can overcome any hurdle that lies before us

and create the life we want to live.

I have seen it happen time and time again.”

~ Gillian Anderson

For some reason, and we will never understand why - some people will be handed a lot in life that seems way too much to bear.

They will be happy and seemingly healthy and they will have plans. Big plans. Plans to marry, to buy a house, to have kids. And they will have set about on that path they carved out in front of them.

And then something will hit them. Hard. Out of the blue. Without warning.

And it will be big. And scary. And there will be a flood of tears and a flood of prayers...

And, for some, those prayers will be answered.

And they will overcome.

And they will grow to help others and teach their children to help others because they will know how important it is for others to overcome, too. They will know how precious life hanging in the balance truly is. And they will know that every little bit helps.

And those are some incredibly special people. 

To donate, please use the donate button on the right side of this blog post.
All proceeds will go to the Walworth County Cloggers' 2011 Relay For Life Team to benefit the American Cancer Society.

All For One and One For All!

I am awed by the graciousness of others.

I started this kind of as a whim. See, there is this American Cancer Society Relay For Life and my daughter's clogging group had a team and as a mom I felt it was my responsibility to teach my daughter that we had to give back. That no matter how small the contribution, it is our duty to help. Plus, I was thankful. So incredibly thankful.

See, my daughter is healthy. But she wasn't always.

There was a time when she was sick. All. the. time. She would get fevers. Lots of them. Like a switch being flipped, she would be fine one minute and then passed out in a sweatting mess the next.

I took her to the doctor.

I took her back to the doctor.

I took her again. And again. And again.

And they did blood tests that scared the hell out of me. Test that came back with words like dangerously low white blood cell count and we need to understand why this is happening and possible indication of leukemia.

And I was scared. God, was I scared.

But somehow, mercifully, we dodged the bullet. Somehow we dodged cancer. I can't explain it - and to this day we still don't know why for two years she was so sick - but I'll take not knowing, you know? I'll take not knowing because my child did not have cancer.

And then something happens like Relay For Life and I know I'm in. I know I've got to at least try to make a difference. Because someone's child does have cancer.

And that mom is scared out of her flipping mind right now.
And so is that dad.
And so is that brother and that sister.
And that grandma and grandpa and aunt and uncle and cousin and best friend and teacher and everyone else that little, innocent life touches.



So, I cannot sit by doing nothing while I know someone else is hearing the words dangerously low white blood cell count, knowing that there is a real possibility they might not dodge cancer.

I cannot look at this loose change in the bottom of my purse, annoyed that it's adding all this weight to my bag, when I know that every single penny truly can make a difference in the fight against cancer.


I look at the people who come into my office, or who I pass on the street, or who are sitting next to me in the movie theater, or waiting in line at the grocery store and I can't help but count them.... and wish they would each give just 99 cents...


Six people in line with me at the checkout = $5.94
Eight people came in the office today = $7.92

Three people at the gas station, Fifteen co-workers, Twelve teachers = $29.70

Sixty Seven dancers, One Hundred Eighteen students, Three Hundred parishoners = $480.15

100,593 people in Walworth County according to the 2009 census = $99,587.07


So, do I think donating just 99 cents will help make a difference? You bet I do.

And you can help realize that difference by donating just 99 cents today.


To date, you amazing people have donated over $198 to be used in the fight against cancer. Together we can make a difference!


All proceeds will go to the Walworth County Cloggers' Relay For Life Team to benefit the American Cancer Society.

An Example of Giving With Love and Tenderness

Meet Deanna.

Deanna lives over 1,100 miles away.

Deanna saw my just 99 cents blog and donation request

and thought it was pretty cool.

But she didn't stop there.

Instead of just thinking about what a good idea it would be to donate,

she donated.

And she sent her Mom to drop off her donation who, by the way,

is the sweetest woman I have ever met.

Along with the donation was this note:

I thought your idea of 99cents was brilliant but,

I thought I would do it a little different.

One of those dollars is in memory of my husband's grandfather,

who died of lung cancer.

$1 in memory of one of my mom's best friends, Gerry,

who died of breast cancer.

$1 for my sister-in-law,

who is a cancer survivor.

$1 for my aunt,

who is fighting leukemia every day.

$1 for one of the teachers at my kids’ elementary school,

who is a cancer survivor.

And the last $5 is in memory of my Gramma,

who died almost 20 years ago of lung cancer.

She was the best person that I have ever met

and I think about her every day.

Personally, I think Deanna's way was perfect. Don't you?

All proceeds will go to the Walworth County Cloggers' Relay For Life Team to benefit the American Cancer Society.

You Were Born An Original.

I received another decorated dollar today.

You were born an original.

You were born an original. Treasure it. Love it. No matter what life brings --- that's you. No one else on the planet is like you. No one will ever be you. Only you are you....

Make your mark!

Don't hide who you are!

Be who you were meant to be!

I love these dollars. I love that someone took the time to donate. I love that someone knew what words they wanted to share. I love that these dollars will first help fund cancer research and then be circulated across the city, the state, the world, perhaps.... I know that each dollar will end up in the hand it was meant to.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your donation. Truly, I do.


All proceeds will go to the Walworth County Cloggers' Relay For Life Team to benefit the American Cancer Society.

Giving: What Goes Around Comes Around!




A hug  is like a boomerang - you get it back right away.

 

The first dollar! Thank you!
I can't wait to see how many more come in...

Do you know how cool that's going to be to donate all these dollars with such fun, inspirational sayings on them?

Want to add a dollar?
Contact me at bridget0625 [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll give you the address to mail it to.


All proceeds will go to the Walworth County Cloggers' Relay For Life Team to benefit the American Cancer Society.

Ordinary People Are Anything But Ordinary!

Two days ago I posted a Facebook status that said something like if every single one of my Facebook Friends would give me just 99 cents I'd have a whopping $559.35 to donate to the American Cancer Society Relay For Life.

And to my surprise someone said, "I'll do it."

And then another person said, "I'm in."

And then another person said, "Where's your donate button?" which launched a three-hour crash course in navigating PayPal and java script and inserting widgets into a blog.

And now, less than two days later a total of $112.82 has been donated towards cancer research!

And that just blows my mind. Because I knew people were good. I knew people were giving. I just underestimated how good and how giving.

And then someone asked if they could mail me a dollar. And I said of course!

And then I thought wow I start a lot of sentences with prepositional phrases.

And after that I thought what if that dollar had something awesome on it to further raise cancer awareness...

And I thought what if it had an inspirational message on it and then as the dollar found its way into circulation one day someone affected by cancer would go to the pharmacy to pick up some medication and get their change back and there it was - a message that they needed to see that might just change their day.

Something like this:

And I thought I know! I can ask people to mail me a decorated dollar ... and they can write whatever they want on it: a quote, a message, a picture, a name, a cancer awareness ribbon - anything! And then I'll take a photo of it and post each decorated dollar in an online photo album!

And I thought that would be freaking cool.

Except then I remembered that writing on currency is probably considered defacing government property and although I've heard some federal prisons are pretty cushy and I could probably learn to crochet while doing my time, I probably shouldn't be encouraging others to deface government property.

But then I thought what if someone found a dollar bill that happened to already be decorated? And that someone then chose to mail it to me so I could donate it to the American Cancer Society?

I think then we'd have a lot of really cool dollar bills floating around that did double duty: being donated to be used towards cancer research, and then being used to brighten somebody's day.

So, if you happen to find a decorated dollar and wish to mail it to me to be used towards the overall donations, please contact me at:

bridget0625 [at] yahoo [dot] com

In the meantime, please keep sharing this link! The more people who donate just 99 cents the bigger the difference we can make.