St. Baldrick’s: 46 Mommas Shave for the Brave at Union Station
On Wednesday night, the west main hall of Union Station in Washington, DC was filled with hundreds of people supporting The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a non-profit organization that raises money to fund research for childhood cancer. More specifically, they were there to help kickoff the second annual 46 Mommas: Shave for the Brave event, in which 46 women from around the country shave their heads with the goal of raising $1 million for St. Baldrick’s. Each of these women has a child that has been impacted by cancer, some in remission, many undergoing treatment and some who have lost the battle with the disease.
“The reason the number 46 is significant is because it represents the number of children diagnosed with cancer every day,” said Terry Duffin of Doylestown, PA, a participating mother whose daughter Katie Ann was diagnosed when she was six and a half months old. Katie Ann passed away just before she turned five, and Terry has been determined to spread awareness since she became involved with the group last year.
The Executive Director of The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Kathleen Ruddy, honored the Mommas, volunteers and colleagues for enabling the foundation to become the #1 funder of research grants outside of the Federal Government. For 11 years, St. Baldrick’s has united people from all walks of life who have one goal: to make sure that care is available for every infant, child, teen and young adult who has cancer.
Hosting the event was weekend anchor Angie Goff of WRC-TV (NBC4), introducing each woman by name and the child they were honoring. The Mommas were brought to the stage in groups of six where the stylists at PR Partners commenced the shaving; many of them had fun with it beforehand by getting their hair braided. Among the participants were other DC area news celebrities like Andrea Roane (WUSA-TV), Natasha Barrett (WJLA) and legendary entertainment reporter Arch Campbell (WJLA).
Mr. Campbell assisted in shaving the head of Jennifer Cartwright, a fellow Texan who was participating in honor of her son Zachary. Campbell, wearing a letsconquer.orgshirt along with his trademark hat, said that he’d had colon cancer just six years ago. “Participating in this event was something that was important,” he said.
46 Mommas founder Tiffany Beamer announced that their organization had raised $603,000 for St. Baldrick’s since its inception last year, and unbelievable stride toward the $1 million goal. Each year, the group will induct 46 new participants to reach for a new goal and ultimately, one day, to have no need for such an organization.
A huge presence at the event was Dr. Peter Adamson, an oncologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and chair at Children’s Oncology Group, the worlds largest cooperative for this kind of research. The group represents virtually every center in the United States, extending to Canada and reaching as far as Australia and New Zealand, making up about 220 sites in total that care for children with cancer.
“We’re funded predominantly by the National Cancer Institute,” says Dr Adamson. “But the money is insufficient for the work that we do. We run about a hundred clinical trials in virtually every type of child with cancer, and we do it in large measure on the hard work and volunteerism of doctors and nurses. But nonetheless, there’s work that costs money.”
“We have a partnership with St. Baldrick’s that has been phenomenal. With the money they’ve raised they’ve helped pay the bills at every one of our research sites. With an organization that has so much research going on, it gets very difficult for every site to open every study. Sometimes, some of our most important studies are in the most difficult to treat, less common cancers. With the ‘high impact initiative,’ we’ve determined which are the four most important studies that are difficult to open because of how small the numbers are. Any research site that opens all four studies will automatically be funded. St. Baldrick’s got behind that.”
The journey for these women, their families and committed partners like Dr. Peter Adamson does not stop and start with these events, nor with simply funding research. On the contrary, it is an ongoing commitment to eradicating cancer in children and young adults altogether. Later this week, these 46 Mommas will be meeting with members of Congress to discuss further measures in research and treatment of the disease.
To support this cause or simply learn more about it, please visit:
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 at 12:45 am and is filed under COMMENTARY. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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St. Baldrick’s: 46 Mommas Shave for the Brave at Union Station
On Wednesday night, the west main hall of Union Station in Washington, DC was filled with hundreds of people supporting The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a non-profit organization that raises money to fund research for childhood cancer. More specifically, they were there to help kickoff the second annual 46 Mommas: Shave for the Brave event, in which 46 women from around the country shave their heads with the goal of raising $1 million for St. Baldrick’s. Each of these women has a child that has been impacted by cancer, some in remission, many undergoing treatment and some who have lost the battle with the disease.
“The reason the number 46 is significant is because it represents the number of children diagnosed with cancer every day,” said Terry Duffin of Doylestown, PA, a participating mother whose daughter Katie Ann was diagnosed when she was six and a half months old. Katie Ann passed away just before she turned five, and Terry has been determined to spread awareness since she became involved with the group last year.
The Executive Director of The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Kathleen Ruddy, honored the Mommas, volunteers and colleagues for enabling the foundation to become the #1 funder of research grants outside of the Federal Government. For 11 years, St. Baldrick’s has united people from all walks of life who have one goal: to make sure that care is available for every infant, child, teen and young adult who has cancer.
Hosting the event was weekend anchor Angie Goff of WRC-TV (NBC4), introducing each woman by name and the child they were honoring. The Mommas were brought to the stage in groups of six where the stylists at PR Partners commenced the shaving; many of them had fun with it beforehand by getting their hair braided. Among the participants were other DC area news celebrities like Andrea Roane (WUSA-TV), Natasha Barrett (WJLA) and legendary entertainment reporter Arch Campbell (WJLA).
Mr. Campbell assisted in shaving the head of Jennifer Cartwright, a fellow Texan who was participating in honor of her son Zachary. Campbell, wearing a letsconquer.org shirt along with his trademark hat, said that he’d had colon cancer just six years ago. “Participating in this event was something that was important,” he said.
46 Mommas founder Tiffany Beamer announced that their organization had raised $603,000 for St. Baldrick’s since its inception last year, and unbelievable stride toward the $1 million goal. Each year, the group will induct 46 new participants to reach for a new goal and ultimately, one day, to have no need for such an organization.
A huge presence at the event was Dr. Peter Adamson, an oncologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and chair at Children’s Oncology Group, the worlds largest cooperative for this kind of research. The group represents virtually every center in the United States, extending to Canada and reaching as far as Australia and New Zealand, making up about 220 sites in total that care for children with cancer.
“We’re funded predominantly by the National Cancer Institute,” says Dr Adamson. “But the money is insufficient for the work that we do. We run about a hundred clinical trials in virtually every type of child with cancer, and we do it in large measure on the hard work and volunteerism of doctors and nurses. But nonetheless, there’s work that costs money.”
“We have a partnership with St. Baldrick’s that has been phenomenal. With the money they’ve raised they’ve helped pay the bills at every one of our research sites. With an organization that has so much research going on, it gets very difficult for every site to open every study. Sometimes, some of our most important studies are in the most difficult to treat, less common cancers. With the ‘high impact initiative,’ we’ve determined which are the four most important studies that are difficult to open because of how small the numbers are. Any research site that opens all four studies will automatically be funded. St. Baldrick’s got behind that.”
The journey for these women, their families and committed partners like Dr. Peter Adamson does not stop and start with these events, nor with simply funding research. On the contrary, it is an ongoing commitment to eradicating cancer in children and young adults altogether. Later this week, these 46 Mommas will be meeting with members of Congress to discuss further measures in research and treatment of the disease.
To support this cause or simply learn more about it, please visit:
http://46mommas.com/
http://www.stbaldricks.org/
http://www.stbaldricks.org/letsconquer/
TRR Commentary and Intervue by Michael Parsons
Photographs by Alissa Parsons
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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 at 12:45 am and is filed under COMMENTARY. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.