40 years of THON!

Received an email about THON today, which included this:

Last year, THON raised $9.59 million for children battling cancer and gave nearly 97 percent of all funds raised to The Four Diamonds Fund. The Fund supports a team of pediatric oncologists, enables innovative cancer research through The Four Diamonds Pediatric Cancer Research Institute, and offsets the cost of treatment that insurance does not cover. Additionally, THON has contributed $10 million to the construction of a new Children’s Hospital at Hershey Medical Center, which is set to open in the fall of 2012.

Holy, holy smokes. Gives me chills. So beyond Penn State proud!

Give Kids the World

Today, we (yes we...because Ryan and I each received our own copies) received the Fall newsletter for Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. My name was listed on the middle insert TWICE! - for the 2010 Summer volunteers and the 2010 Team Hole in the Wall members. It was such a positive reminder of the power we have to make a difference in the lives of others and perfectly timed, since I wanted to share this story anyway. Hank, the founder/mastermind behind Hope Express, shared this story with us this past week.

Thanksgiving

Henry stood still naked. He was standing beside a big wide open hole in the ground. It wasn’t any kind of hole. It had been dug by a bulldozer for a single purpose. The war had progressed on and Germany was losing. The American forces had turned the tide and were steadily making their way to the German capitol. This had no bearing on Henry though. He knew nothing of the progression of the war. He only knew of death and suffering in the concentration camp that was now his home.

He stared down into the pit of dead and dying bodies and knew that his time on earth was over. His hands were behind his head awaiting the bullet that was soon to come. The Germans needed more money for their soldiers on the front line and they determined that bullets were cheaper than the gas chambers. Simple really. Just dig a big hole. Shoot them in the head and cover the hole. Silly they didn’t think of it earlier.

The shots came. Henry instinctively fell into the pit with the rest of the bodies. It didn’t take Henry long to realize that he wasn’t dead. He couldn’t move or he would be shot for sure. He played dead even as the bodies piled on top of him. He decided to wait until dark and try to escape, that is, if they didn’t decide to plow him over with dirt.

Luck was with Henry that day. Darkness finally came. Henry dug himself out from the bodies that lay on top of him. He crawled out of the pit of death and ran into the darkness of night. He didn’t stop running until a couple of days later where he found some clothes on a clothesline outside a house. He had no idea where he was. When the owners of the home came out of the house and confronted him he almost ran away. It is a good thing he didn’t because I would know nothing of Henry and the man he would become.

Henry had managed to run from Germany to Austria. The family in that home protected him until the end of the war. What had seemed like sure death had somehow been redirected.

Years later Henry was now a manager of a hotel in the middle of somewhere on the Florida east coast. The space program was in full swing, and the hotel where Henry worked housed astronauts, the media and many famous people of the time. Henry always made sure he went out of the way to make his guests felt at home. A newspaper was always ready for them in the morning. He would find out the birthdays of his guests and a cake would be made if they were celebrating it while in the hotel. His only concern was his guests and their happiness. He also became friends with a lot of these guests.

After his time on the space coast he had saved his money and he decided to start his own hotel in Orlando. He was doing quite well for himself and one day he was reading the local paper when he read a story that hit him to the core. A young girl who was on the waiting list for the “Make A Wish” program had died before she could get to Disney World. How could this be, he thought? He knew how precious life can be, and he was determined to never let this happen again.

He picked up the phone and started calling all of the friends he had made earlier in his life. He put a network of hotels together so that no child would be without a room. They were given a room over others. He worked with Disney to make special passes available and special preference given to those kids on a wish vacation.

Failures still occurred, and Henry was determined to fix this once and for all. He picked up the phone again and called everyone he knew to come up with the money for a special place where wish kids go insuring that no one would be left behind. That place exists today. It is called Give Kids the World. This is where we spent our wish trip to Disney. If Disney is magical, then GKTW is beyond that. We asked Gabe before the trip what he wanted most. He said he wanted to meet Fiona. We went to the front desk the day of arrival and asked if this was possible. We had heard that GKTW could make dreams come true. They did. You all remind us runners weekend and you can see the video.

That week in Florida at GKTW was amazing for us. It washed away so many of the bad things that had happened to us over Gabe’s treatment. One man. One dream. Thousands of miracles. People come from around the world to keep and maintain the property. They are all volunteers. The full time staff is very small in comparison. Bottom line, no child now has to wait. All of this came from a boy who stood naked over a pit of dead bodies.

Now I have a question for all of you. What excuse do you have for not doing your run? What excuse do you have for not asking or telling your friends to donate to those who cannot help themselves? What excuse do you have? What do you think Henry would do? Do you think he would stop or give up or find any excuse from achieving what he knew in his heart was worth fighting for? Look into the mirror. I think I know the answer.

Carry-on Suitcase features Multiple Sets of Running Clothes

While I've left Michigan twice for home-away-from-homes back East, I had the wonderful pleasure of flying home to New York for the holiday weekend. I was extremely proud that I was able to limit myself to a carry-on suitcase, which is a big deal for me. Even bigger, I packed with the reality that I would be shlepping that carry-on through the airports, onto the train/subway, and over multiple NYC blocks. That being said, my running clothes still made up a significant percentage of my baggage (luckily I foresaw this issue and left a pair of sneakers at home - phew!).

I've been really happy with the schedule I've set the past few weeks and the routine I've established. That's also something I struggle with, but I feel really good about it, and it came in handy this weekend when I easily could have taken a few extra naps on the couch instead of heading out to run (midnight shopping makes me sleepy!). I had two awesome runs: one at hometown favorite for running (clearly a borrowed picture, although it was basically summer weather on Friday's run!), and the other through the neighborhoods that house some of my favorite houses...a route which afforded me a CELEBRITY RUN-IN! Mike Kitt sped past me on his bike, which made me laugh. The distance he covered in about 30 seconds took me several minutes to tackle. I thought maybe I should consider switching my sport, until I was informed he was still at it two hours later. Oh running, how I always come back to you<3.

"In the end I have to hold myself accountable. It is my career and my responsibility to do what I need to do to be the best I can be. I had to make a change if I really wanted to reach the goals I had set for myself. I had to get out of being comfortable and get into a situation that was going to really push me." - Kara Goucher

Major Happenings

I have been slacking, because there is WAY too much for this one post. So much. Big things have been happening.

First off, I found out last week that I will have the INCREDIBLE privilege of running as part of the Hope Express EXTREME Team this February! My amazing family and friends (and their family and friends too!) donated $1,300 to the Four Diamonds Fund/Hershey Medical Center/the fight against pediatric cancer - WOW! The donations and the notes that came along with them overwhelmed me with such feelings of happiness, pride, and appreciation. There is no way I could ever have taken up running to better the lives of children in the first place without this unconditional support. And thank goodness I have this support, because EIGHTEEN miles have my name written all over them (it was done with the same truck that makes the dotted yellow line in the middle of the road).

The second big set of news is that I am officially working at a paraprofessional in a Kindergarten classroom - woo! I have actually been there for over a month now and am really enjoying it. Having never worked in a Kindergarten classroom/spent an extended period of time working with this age, it has been a really eye-opening experience for me. Even in the few weeks I've been working there, it's been great to see how much the students have grown so far. Today, a student was getting upset, saying that he couldn't do the activity the class was doing. The teacher reminded him that a few weeks ago, there were a lot of things him and the other students didn't think they could do...and now they do them with ease. I had to laugh to myself, because it was like SNL was doing a parody of my life. It's so easy to forget how hard we've worked to get where we are. That's just one of the reasons I love this. It's awesome, they kept it honestly real...and it's very, very funny.

pre-pick jitters

Prior to this evening's "cross training work out" of ice skating (which I was really looking forward to..until I realized ice skating = really cold out = winter is coming quickly), I wanted to attempt to capture my emotions of the day. The 2012 Hope Express teams are being selected tomorrow, and I have been shown so much love and support from friends, family, friends of family and family of friends...wow! It's hard to verbalize it all, other than how blessed I feel to be so well supported and how glad I am that I set out to take on something that, if selected, will be a huge challenge for me, but will be for a cause I feel so strongly about. Beyond that, Hope Express is, just as its name suggests, is about HOPE...bringing hope to the Four Diamonds families during their fight against cancer. As I've been shown in the past weeks, also bringing hope to the loved ones in my life...reminding them of how much we are each capable of and the power we have to make an impact on the lives of others. I would be honored to run at part of this year's HE team, and will be bummed if I'm not selected, but regardless of what happens, I am so glad that I know I'll be involved in making the event a success and with continuing to spread the word, the love, and the hope.

And on that note, a BIG good luck to Deanne this weekend as she sets out to dominate 26.2 miles in NYC this weekend for TNT/LLS. We've come a long, long way from slothing it in the HUB...I'm beaming with pride!