Team Samantha ROCKS!
The last few weeks have been crazy on many fronts. Cindy went away for a much deserved few vacation, I had back to back weeks taking the red-eye home from the west coast, we had the Rashi annual dinner and, oh yeah, the Ride for Research was this past Sunday. Many, many of you are supporters of this event for those of you couldn't be here in person, I will (really, I promise) post a more detailed update of the day and some pictures at some point soon.
In the interim, suffice it to say that the event was great, despite a major down pour for about an hour and a steady drizzle thereafter, and we were truly touched as always by the outpouring of support this brings out in our extended community. As a short cut, I'm going to attach to the bottom of this posting a copy of the e-mail we sent to our team shortly after the ride.
If you rode, raised money, volunteered, thought of Samantha that day, or made a donation, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. If not, there's always next year!
==================================================================
It is difficult it is to articulate our feelings in the aftermath of what is always an emotional event or to express our gratitude for the love and support you all showered upon us on Sunday (if you'll forgive the pun). Despite the rain, you all brought a fantastic light into our lives; and the consistent drizzle and occasional downpours couldn't begin to dampen your extraordinary spirits. The weather just seemed to make everyone that much more determined and united, wet allies doing what we came there to do.
In some ways, being parents of a child with a brain tumor, we saw the weather and our team's response to it as an appropriate metaphor - living with Samantha's diagnosis means a consistent drizzle of stress and side effects and occasional downpours of bad news, without any control over what's happening to us or any real predictor of what lies ahead. But we constantly reaffirm for ourselves, with your support "we'll be damned if this disease is going to beat us." When the going gets tough, we rely on all of you and your amazing sense of spirit to sustain us.
Seeing our family, old and new friends and, most profoundly, perfect strangers, both participate and cheer us on is really an amazing thing. Reviewing our list of team members and seeing how much money you've raised and how many donations each of you have received is truly touching. Hearing your war stories about the ride and what it meant to you and your kids is a hoot. You honored us with your presence Sunday as you have done throughout our journey.
Two years ago when we first created Team Samantha, we felt literally and figuratively alone. Today we are blessed to be joined not only by all of you, but also by our friends on Teams TJ, Jake and Lucy. In addition, we were honored that the family and friends of four similarly situated kids were also represented on our teams --- Sterling, Whitney, Kelsey and Ryan --- and who are working with us towards our common goal -- to create more effective, less toxic treatment alternatives for our kids. Thank you for joining us in our quest.
To date, our four teams and eight families have raised over $750,000 for this years ride, and still counting as the BTS processes donations received on or after the ride date (it's not too late --- contributions are accepted until September). Our initial stretch target was $1 million for this year -- I don't think we'll quite get there, but we're going to get close and are thrilled with the results. Equally important, we've got four outstanding grants approved through peer review and ready for funding, are in the early stages of planning our second scientific workshop for October in Boston, and have several other exciting developments in the planning stages that we can't quite talk about yet.
We know that your time is valuable, that fundraising from your friends and colleagues on our behalf isn't fun, and that riding or volunteering on a gray and rainy day in May is no one's idea of a good time. While many of you are still soggy or sore, we hope you are able to smile because each of you have made a real difference for Samantha and for our family. We know that we couldn't do this alone, so thank you again for your dedication to Team Samantha. You are truly our heros.
With love and admiration,
AJ and Cindy
P.S. To the extent that you or any of your friends ride in the Pan Mass Challenge and might be interested in learning more about how they can help Team Samantha by directing the funds they raise in the PMC towards relevant brain tumor research at the Dana Farber, please let me know asap.
Link to the ride website:
http://www.braintumorsociety.org/site/TR?pg=personal&JServSessionIdr001=t1pf4m3dj1.app2a&fr_id=1131&px=1025059
In the interim, suffice it to say that the event was great, despite a major down pour for about an hour and a steady drizzle thereafter, and we were truly touched as always by the outpouring of support this brings out in our extended community. As a short cut, I'm going to attach to the bottom of this posting a copy of the e-mail we sent to our team shortly after the ride.
If you rode, raised money, volunteered, thought of Samantha that day, or made a donation, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. If not, there's always next year!
==================================================================
Dear Team Samantha riders, virtual riders and volunteers,
It is difficult it is to articulate our feelings in the aftermath of what is always an emotional event or to express our gratitude for the love and support you all showered upon us on Sunday (if you'll forgive the pun). Despite the rain, you all brought a fantastic light into our lives; and the consistent drizzle and occasional downpours couldn't begin to dampen your extraordinary spirits. The weather just seemed to make everyone that much more determined and united, wet allies doing what we came there to do.
In some ways, being parents of a child with a brain tumor, we saw the weather and our team's response to it as an appropriate metaphor - living with Samantha's diagnosis means a consistent drizzle of stress and side effects and occasional downpours of bad news, without any control over what's happening to us or any real predictor of what lies ahead. But we constantly reaffirm for ourselves, with your support "we'll be damned if this disease is going to beat us." When the going gets tough, we rely on all of you and your amazing sense of spirit to sustain us.
Seeing our family, old and new friends and, most profoundly, perfect strangers, both participate and cheer us on is really an amazing thing. Reviewing our list of team members and seeing how much money you've raised and how many donations each of you have received is truly touching. Hearing your war stories about the ride and what it meant to you and your kids is a hoot. You honored us with your presence Sunday as you have done throughout our journey.
Two years ago when we first created Team Samantha, we felt literally and figuratively alone. Today we are blessed to be joined not only by all of you, but also by our friends on Teams TJ, Jake and Lucy. In addition, we were honored that the family and friends of four similarly situated kids were also represented on our teams --- Sterling, Whitney, Kelsey and Ryan --- and who are working with us towards our common goal -- to create more effective, less toxic treatment alternatives for our kids. Thank you for joining us in our quest.
To date, our four teams and eight families have raised over $750,000 for this years ride, and still counting as the BTS processes donations received on or after the ride date (it's not too late --- contributions are accepted until September). Our initial stretch target was $1 million for this year -- I don't think we'll quite get there, but we're going to get close and are thrilled with the results. Equally important, we've got four outstanding grants approved through peer review and ready for funding, are in the early stages of planning our second scientific workshop for October in Boston, and have several other exciting developments in the planning stages that we can't quite talk about yet.
We know that your time is valuable, that fundraising from your friends and colleagues on our behalf isn't fun, and that riding or volunteering on a gray and rainy day in May is no one's idea of a good time. While many of you are still soggy or sore, we hope you are able to smile because each of you have made a real difference for Samantha and for our family. We know that we couldn't do this alone, so thank you again for your dedication to Team Samantha. You are truly our heros.
With love and admiration,
AJ and Cindy
P.S. To the extent that you or any of your friends ride in the Pan Mass Challenge and might be interested in learning more about how they can help Team Samantha by directing the funds they raise in the PMC towards relevant brain tumor research at the Dana Farber, please let me know asap.
Link to the ride website:
http://www.braintumorsociety.org/site/TR?pg=personal&JServSessionIdr001=t1pf4m3dj1.app2a&fr_id=1131&px=1025059
posted by Samantha J @ 10:38 PM
1 Comments:
At 9:52 PM,
Anonymous said…
I was about to write "I love hearing about Samantha's life." I was about to write that, and then following that, "If you could try to post an update soon that would be great because I would really like to know what's going on with her." The second part of that is true. But "love" is not the word I would use to describe how I feel about reading about Samantha. I would use a word more like "hate" or "fear" or "cry". Or maybe I would say something like "am eager to" or "wish I could" or "need to." Because it is a need, in a way. So basically the message of this is that although reading about Samantha's and your life greatly saddens me and makes me feel awful for you, a daily dose of reading this blog is sustanance for me, so I can check on our favorite blond little girl. It is my way of asking her, and you, if she is doing okay. It is my way of biting my lip and telling her everything is going to be alright. It is my way of reaching down and giving her a hug. So thanks for this, and for everything you have given to me and taught me over the past year.
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