"I Skipped Lunch for Erin"

September 8, 2004

No news yet (noon). When I get out of class at 1:30, I am going to send Erin's doctor an e-mail announcing that I am free to accept phone calls. Maybe that will work ;-).

What follows is a request for your support again this year for Lunch for Life. I am posting this on behalf of the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation (If you do feel moved to donate, send me an e-mail with the subject line: "I Skipped Lunch for Erin", so that I can thank you. If you don't that's okay, too.):

After Erin had chemo, she had no appetite. After reading this, maybe you won't either...

Because we are asking you to skip lunch today or tomorrow, and donate the money you would have spent on lunch to fund curative research for solid tumor cancers in children.

We're the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation. And through the "Lunch for Life" research funding campaign, we've already raised over $150,000.

But we want $10 million. Yes, our goal is aggressive. But so is neuroblastoma. Only about 2 out of 10 kids that get this form of pediatric cancer will survive. What's more, it's the most common cancer in infancy. (The incidence rate is almost double that of leukemia).

To help us fund a cure, donate your lunch money (for most people that's about $5) to this research fund and---this is the important part---ask 5 friends to do the same. Tell them to ask 5 friends. Then pass it on. You get the idea. This is the only way we will succeed.

To start your own chain of giving, send $5 (or for that matter, any other amount) to: CNCF, PO Box 6635, Bloomingdale, IL 60108. Or call 1-866-671-2623. You can also make a credit card donation online at our secure web site: http://www.lunchforlife.org CNCF is a 501 (c)(3) public charity. Your donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. ID #36-4370725.

Just Going to School

November 4, 2003

We heard from Erin's doctor moments ago with the great news that all of Erin's tests (CT scan, bone scan, MIBG scan, bone marrow aspiration and biopsy) from last week were clear. We were not really expecting to hear otherwise, because Erin looks and feels so well, BUT it is much better to hear the final results than just to hope or expect them to be good.

I haven't written much about Erin lately because it is sort of mundane (in a good way). She has been healthy and happy. She loves her first grade teacher, Miss Hanson, and her student teacher Ms. Sims. She has two good (old) friends at school who she sees everyday--Nico and Ayeesha, and two good (old) friends who don't go to her school who she sees when she can--Katie and Tiffany. She is also making loads of new friends at Mary Branch Elementary.

In many ways it seems like Erin has picked up her old life where she left off without really missing a beat. Her dance lessons have expanded to an hour and a half each week, with the addition of jazz. I don't know if she is at all graceful or coordinated, but she wears a smile the whole time. She also goes to the marvelous children's music program at First Presbyterian Church on Sunday afternoon for two-and-a-half hours of singing, handbells, drama, and fellowship. Thanks to all the staff, volunteers, and helpers who make this program happen!

Erin's soccer team, The Sharks, will conclude their fall season next Monday evening. She has a blast with Jackson, Bailey, Junior, Josh, Nestor, Dustin, Tori, Noah, and of course her buddy Nico. While The Sharks have not outscored their opponents yet, they love to play their positions: outside runner, inside runner, hammerhead, and T. Rex, oh and also the position some of you might recognize. . .goal keeper. They also have fun at practice playing Blob Monster, World Cup, and Soccer Red Light, Green Light.

The rest of the family is trying to keep up :>. Davis's soccer team was undefeated until last Sunday when they took a loss in a tight game to the first place team in the league. He is playing awesome, and I for one am glad to see him play (having missed all the games last fall when Erin was in the induction chemo phase of her treatment). Davis is also doing well in school despite his heavy academic load: Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, AP American History, and sophomore English (plus art and soccer).

Walter seems to have gotten used to being department chair. He is also teaching a graduate seminar this fall, so he has a lot of balls in the air. I am fine as well, though considering how much grading is sitting on my desk right now, I probably should be attending to that rather than updating Erin's website.

Thanks for checking in with us. Erin will have an echo cardiogram in December to check whether her chemo has had any effect on her heart functioning. Scans again in mid-January. In the meantime, with Halloween behind us, it will be a mad dash from now until the end of the year.

October 31, 2003

Erin finished her scans and testing yesterday and we made it back to Bryan for school today and trick-or-treating tonight. We have good results from the CT scan--all clear. I will post other results next week when I hear from Erin's doctor.

Erin will be a cowgirl tonight. I think she is still hoping for a (real) horse as a prop.

October 11, 2003

Thanks to everyone who has visited and taken part in Lunch for Life for neuroblastoma research. The effort is continuing, and although we haven't raised $10 million, we have had a terrific response. If you have taken part, drop me a note at w-buenger@tamu.edu with the subject "I Gave Up Lunch for Erin."

Erin continues to amaze us and everyone around her. She is definitely hitting her stride in school, soccer, and dancing, and she looks and feels great. The rest of us are doing pretty darned well ourselves.

Erin will have the next rounds of scans at the end of the month.

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