New Help for the Foundation

   Let me start this week’s story by giving a great big thank you to everyone who has helped with the events I have done with the Foundation. There are so many wonderful people out there who want to be part of the events and mainly want to help the people in our community as much as they can. None of these events would have been anywhere near the success they were without your selflessness and hard work. I want to tell you how grateful I am to all of you.

   This week’s story is about a new person I had the pleasure of talking to this weekend. She got my information from Rick at TCI and reached out to me. She sent me an email telling me she had been on the local board of a national non-profit event that happens every year. This particular non-profit event is held in cities all over the country and promises the funds go to help cancer patients. She told me in her email that she has become very disheartened with this event because none of the money stays in our community. I wrote back and told her I knew exactly what she was talking about, because I had the same experience with the same event when I was on the Auxiliary Board at the hospital. We both agreed we needed to get together sometime, and she told me Sunday afternoon would work best for her. I asked her if we could meet at Perkins around 1:30 and she said that would work great.

   We were taken to a booth and I started telling her how the Foundation was started and its purpose. I told her about a few of the events we have put together like the Crusade Against Cancer and the Shannon Wilker Foundation Night Out. She told me about her role in fund raising for the non-profit event and how disappointing it has been to help raise that much money, just to have the company use the majority of it for salaries, and how none of the funds stayed in our community. We both share the same frustration and I told her that has been one of the reason the Foundation has grown as much as it has over the last three years. “We live in a very generous and compassionate community. There are so many people and businesses that want to raise money to help. They just want to make sure the funds help the people it needs to,” I told her. “I agree with you completely,” she replied.
We started talking about some new ideas for fund raisers we could do. One of the events she mentioned was a mud volleyball tournament. “They used to do one out at Sandy Downs, but they haven’t had one for a while,” she said. “That sounds like it could be a lot of fun!” I replied. Then she told me she lives in Rigby, and there is a group that has modified their lawn mowers and race them. “Maybe we could use that for one of the events,” she said. “That sounds like a great idea! We could call it Mowing Down Cancer” I told her. She agreed that would be a perfect name for it.

   It was so nice to talk with her and I admire her passion and drive. I am confident we will be able to put some great fundraising events together and help a lot of cancer patients and their families. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to meet great people like her. I want to thank everyone again for their help with these events. I really appreciate it. Thanks for reading.

Next week: Run for the Cure

P.S. The answer is yes, I chose Perkins because they have a great menu for Seniors. What’s your point?