Give Up Your Lunch

October 1, 2003

Please join me and Erin in supporting Neuroblastoma Research. Today! A parent of a little girl named Sydney Dungan has launched a fundraising effort to support raising money and awareness about neuroblastoma. I have excerpted the following from their website (http://www.sydneydungan.com/LunchforLife.htm). The third paragraph below explains the main idea. Give up your lunch for one day (about $5) and ask your friends to do it, too. Send the money to Children's Neuroblastoma Research Foundation. All the details are below (including links where you can donate on-line and addresses if you prefer to use the mail. For the record, Erin is doing great!

Lunch for Life

The idea of "Lunch for Life" has grown over the past few weeks and I see it as a great opportunity to stand together and make an impact, to make the world hear us in one united voice. I truly believe it will work and if the past week is any indication of how effective it will be I think we could make our goals. My original idea was really based on the feelings of a desperate parent but as we have further refined the idea I feel even more confident that it will be successful. This could very well be the difference we need. We need voices shouting from around the world saying that this is important. Hopefully, with enough families, we will make the difference. First off, I want to thank you for your interest. We have three goals. First, we want to raise funds to aid in the research effort. Funds will by applied to grants for neuroblastoma research. Grants will be funded based on the opinions of a medical panel whose sole purpose is to hasten the search for a cure. Second, my goal is to increase awareness. I hope that we will receive national press and this will afford us the opportunity to get the word out and make our cries heard around the world. Third, I would like the funds raised to be used to educate and support the families afflicted by neuroblastoma. As much as I love my hospital and the dedicated health professionals that are caring for Sydney this effort is not for them. This fundraiser is dedicated to eradicating this disease and its effects from all of the children currently fighting the battle and the thousands that will follow. All funds raised will be for the benefit of the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation (CNCF), an organization with like minded goals dedicated towards the search for a cure wherever it may lie.

With that being said I ask you to join me, my family and hundreds of others in a single effort to level the playing field and raise the funds necessary to make an impact. For me it is a time to shed my cynicism, fear and apathy and to energize our effort. I believe it will work and, with all of our collaboration, in just ten short days we will be able to send the research effort in fast forward. We can do it.

The theory behind "Lunch for Life" is very simple. We are asking everyone we know to give up their lunch -- about the cost of five dollars -- and donate it to the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation. It is really much more than this but the basic premise remains true. We have received public support with our effort and we are prepared to make a dramatic impact nationwide. We are hoping that a ground swell of support will take our grass roots campaign to the rest of the world. Here is how it works. I am going to ask the hundreds of supporters for my daughter to help me in this crusade. Many are friends and acquaintances but many more are people we did not know until we joined in this fight against neuroblastoma. Many are daily readers of my daughter's website at http://www.sydneydungan.com and follow our lives and my diary on a daily basis. It has been through their offers of help and support that we have decided on this particular path. On October 1, 2003, I am going to ask approximately 500 of these people to do a favor for my family, for your family, and for the thousands out there yet to be diagnosed and donate five dollars to the CNCF. Furthermore, I am going to ask that they propagate this challenge by asking five of their closest friends to do the same and then continue the challenge to each new group of friends each day for a total of ten days. It is very similar to the theory behind the movie "Pay it Forward." Unfortunately, the steps that we take today may not be in time for our children. To a certain extent, many of their fates rest in the medical technology that is exists today. But if we can make enough impact and spread the word to keep this pyramid of giving growing, we will save thousands of lives of the children yet to be diagnosed and we will save their families and friends from the pain that we face everyday. If we can just inspire our friends and family and the thousands of others out there in the world we can make a difference. It takes a large quantity of people and this method will get the word out.

A sample of what one person could do is found below.

The mechanics:

Day 1 1 person asks 5 friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $25

Day 2 Those 5 people ask 5 of there friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $125

Day 3 Those 25 people ask 5 of there friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $625

Day 4 Those 125 people ask 5 of there friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $3,125

Day 5 Those 625 people ask 5 of there friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $15,625

Day 6 Those 3125 people ask 5 of there friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $78,125

Day 7 Those 15625 people ask 5 of there friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $390,625

Day 8 Those 78125 people ask 5 of there friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $1,953,125

Day 9 Those 390625 people ask 5 of there friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $9,765,625

Day 10 Those 1953125 people ask 5 of there friends to donate 5 dollars Total: $48,828,125

Now, I realize that the numbers are astronomical but that is the way that it works out. Some will give much more than five dollars. Some will tell hundreds of their friends and some will not tell any. It takes every one being diligent and checking up the following day to make sure their friends have followed through, but it can work. At the very least it will raise a truly substantial amount of money for an extremely worthy cause and at its very best it will exceed our expectations. Regardless, in just ten days of our combined effort we will change the world of neuroblastoma. There are enough of us.

Methods to get donations to the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation.

People can donate online at:

https://www.cncf-childcancer.org/donation.asp

(it is a secure site accepting Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express)

People can make their pledge online at:

http://www.sydneydungan.com/Pledge_Page.asp

After providing their information, they will be contacted by a volunteer or sent a pledge card to make their donation by mail.

People can call:

1-866-671-2623 CNCF direct line

1-877-795-7948 my office, volunteers will be standing by

People can fax pledge/donation card to:

1-630-351-2462

People can mail their donations to:

Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation

P.O. Box 6635

Bloomingdale, IL 60108

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