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Dear Friends and Family,
You already thought I was a little crazy? Well, now I’m going to confirm your suspicions. I have decided to train to run the Avenue of the Giants ½ marathon in May. Right now I’m not in such great shape – my hamstring is pulled, my knee and hip hurt if I run after the children, my Achilles aches if I try to do aerobics, and I haven’t played squash for almost a year!
However, I’ve started training and I am going to go out in the wind, rain or sunshine and train all week, every week, until the run. Why am I doing this? To raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), a national health agency dedicated to finding the cause, treatments, and cures for leukemia and related cancers such as Hodgkin’s disease, lymphoma, and myeloma. Leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, kills more children between the ages of 1 and 14 years of age than any other disease. Since its founding in 1949, LLS has provided more than $240 million for research specifically targeting blood-related cancers. Research advances in this field are used to treat cancers in other areas too.
Patients inflicted with these terrible diseases sometimes don’t make it, but when they do, it’s because of organizations like this. I recently met a lady named Dori, who two weeks before her sixteenth birthday was diagnosed with Acute Lympoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Today at 31 years old, she has two wonderful, healthy little boys, something she thought she would never see. Her two other friends undergoing treatment at the same time weren’t so lucky and didn’t make it.
I have joined the LLS’s Team in Training (TNT), the largest endurance-training program in the US, which provides a professional 4-month long program of professional coaching, a training regimen, and the support and encouragement I’ll need; in return I’ve committed to raise a minimum of $2,500.
While this ½ marathon will be a major physical test for me (at my age ☺), I’m positive that I’ll finish, even if I have to crawl across the finish line. With your help, I can also succeed in meeting my fundraising goal. Since the LLS is a non-profit organization, all donations are 100% tax deductible.
Please join me in helping the cause (don’t worry, I’ll do all the running). You can contribute by visiting my website:
With sincere thanks and appreciation, Annie Warr |
Bucks for Hunger Drive in 25th Year
Donations of cash or food to VCUM during the months of March and April qualify for a matched grant from The Feinstein Foundation. Your donated dollars provided emergency food, rent/mortgages, utility, medical/dental assistance, educational supplies, bus passes, gas vouchers, and disaster relief to men, women, and children in San Lorenzo Valley and Scotts Valley. Canisters for donations can be found in the church foyer. |
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“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.-Robert Louis Stevenson |
