St. Jude Children’s Hospital Benefit

St. Jude Children’s Hospital Benefit Auction

Celebrating 52 years of helping kids!

1962 – 2014

(ST JUDE'S web site)

Hi all,  I’m Gerald Hebert and I have been the coordinator in this event for the last 2 years and it has been great, but because of health issues, I have decided to step down and let someone younger and eager take my place.  I have enjoyed sending the many benefit checks to St. Jude, and they tell me they were really surprised at how much we were able to raise with this small event.  I want to thank ipigeon (Fred, Fred, and Sharon) for all their help also.  The new coordinator will be John Tierney of Maryland.  I wish him all the luck and please help him as you have helped me in this great cause.  His address and info. is here;

John Tierney

27600 Dawn Acres Lane

Mechanicsville, MD 20659

240-299-5478

ravnman@yahoo.com

Welcome to our St. Jude event page. We are hosting this event to raise money that will help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital find new treatments for childhood cancer and other catastrophic diseases. You can help St. Jude continue its lifesaving work against pediatric diseases with your donation. Check back often to see our progress. Thanks for helping us reach our goal for the kids of St. Jude!  Our goal for this event is $25,000!

We would like to offer the benefit, with your help, to make sure the wonderful staff at St. Jude Children’s Hospital have no financial problems to continue helping the thousands of children and their families that go there every year to receive treatment for cancer and other life threatening diseases.  It has been a lifelong dream of and my wife and me to make a large contribution to this cause.  But without a big lottery win, or huge bonus, that has not been a reality, so our monthly pledge has been all we can do until this idea came to me.  So with your help, support, and prayers we can make some worthy contributions for the cause!  If we help only one child, it will be worth the effort. 

Please feel free to donate at least one pigeon from your best stock to a worthy cause!  If you will send us photos, pedigrees, and a small description of the pigeon, and what it and it’s family has done in the pigeon racing game, we will upload it and give you credit for the donation on a special page for the auction.  We expect a large amount of donations, so please limit the donation to one per week, so everyone can have a chance to show their support. Other items could be training baskets, timing clocks, or any other pigeon related items.  Even monetary donations will be accepted! Please feel free to bid on the pigeons every week, it is one of the best charities out there, with so much that has been done and so much that needs to be done for these poor children. And it is 100% deductible. Please contact John Tierney to send a monetary donation straight to St. Jude to get the address, etc. so this event gets the credit.

If by any chance you are not set up or don’t have a friend who can take the pictures or scan the pedigree, you can ship the pigeon to me (John Tierney), and we will do all that is needed to make sure your donation gets put into the benefit.  You will not be compensated for the shipping to us if you do that, as we will use the shipping money to ship to the winning bidder after the auction.  If you do your own pictures etc., you will be compensated for shipping.  We are not doing this for a profit, all the money will be sent directly from the auction to the hospital on a weekly basis.  All the shipping money will be sent to me, so that I can compensate each shipper.

Each week there will be a full report listing all the donation items, from whom donated each item, and a total of all that was sent to the hospital.  This will be on a special page set up for this benefit.  If you can also send us a picture of yourself, it will be shown on that page next to your name.  It could be a club event if you would like, and each club make a donation every week, that way it would not be so much of a burden to any one individual to get what is needed done for the auction.

Why support St. Jude?

The support of caring people like you helps ensure that St. Jude Children's Research Hospital will continue its lifesaving mission of finding cures and saving children. St. Jude founder Danny Thomas believed that "no child should die in the dawn of life," and your donations help bring us closer to the day when every precious life can be saved.

How do your donations help?

       Thanks to donors, no family ever pays St. Jude for anything. Care, housing, transportation, meals—the list of services we provide to our families is unequalled. But it is for one purpose: To ensure the very best outcome possible for every child.

       At St. Jude, donor dollars help fuel the groundbreaking research that leads to pioneering care and treatments for childhood cancer and other deadly diseases.

How is St. Jude making a difference for sick children?

       Every child saved at St. Jude means children saved around the world—a direct result of cutting-edge research and treatment that set the standard in treating childhood cancers. And our discoveries are shared freely with doctors and scientists all over the world.

       St. Jude developed protocols that have helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent, when the hospital opened in 1962, to 80 percent today.

       St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute.

       St. Jude has embarked on an unprecedented effort to sequence the pediatric cancer genome and to identify the genetic changes that give rise to some of the world's deadliest childhood cancers.

How are donations used?

       During the past five years, 81 cents of every dollar received has supported the research and treatment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

       It costs $1.8 million a day to operate St. Jude, and public donations provide more than 75 percent of our funding.

Donate now to help St. Jude save the lives of children in communities everywhere.

Celebrating 50 years of finding cures and saving Children!

Then

St. Jude On February 4, 1962, Danny Thomas opened the doors of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, forever changing the way the world would treat pediatric cancer.

It was the culmination of more than 10 years of work by Danny and his friends and supporters. As a struggling entertainer, Danny had prayed to Saint Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes, asking him to “show me my way in life.” Danny had vowed to build a shrine in honor of the saint if his prayer was answered.

View our interactive timeline and experience 50 years of St. Jude.

With his prayer answered and his vow fulfilled, Danny challenged the medical staff of the newly opened hospital to make his dream that “no child should die in the dawn of life” a reality. He tasked them with finding the cures for these life-threatening diseases and asked the American public to support the hospital so no family would ever pay for their child’s care.

At the time, there was little hope for a child with cancer. The survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer, was 4 percent. The medical staff, led by the hospital’s first director and CEO Donald Pinkel, M.D., took up the challenge.

By 1971, research at St. Jude helped push the survival rate for ALL from 4 percent to 50 percent. Advances also helped improve the outcomes of other diseases such as retinoblastoma (eye cancer), osteosarcoma (bone cancer) and medulloblastoma (brain cancer).

With its unique approach of placing basic research scientists and doctors under one roof, St. Jude could quickly turn laboratory discoveries into treatments.

Now

Originally opened as place to give hope to the hopeless, St. Jude now provides more than just hope to thousands of families. The research at St. Jude has helped to push the overall survival rate of childhood cancer from less than 20 percent to 80 percent, helping ensure that fewer children lose the battle against cancer. For ALL, the survival rate of this life-threatening disease is now 94 percent.

For families in their time of need, the emotional and financial support provided by St. Jude is unrivaled. Thanks to support from public contributions, no family ever pays St. Jude for anything.

St. Jude has also become a world-class institution that has set the standard for pediatric cancer care. Its efforts have been recognized by some of the nation’s top publications including U.S. News and World Report, FORTUNE, The Scientist and Parents.

St. Jude faculty and staff include Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators; Pew Scholars; members of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences; and a Nobel Laureate. St. Jude also serves as the national coordinating center for collaborations, including the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium and the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

Even with the success St. Jude has had in treating pediatric cancer, there is still much work to be done. “Danny’s dream was that ‘no child should die in the dawn of life,’” says St. Jude Director and CEO Dr. William Evans. And with eyes on that goal, St. Jude faculty and staff continue to rise to the challenges of a new century, marrying the latest technology with a vision and determination to succeed for children and families everywhere.

Initiatives like the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, launched in 2010, offer great promise for driving the future of pediatric cancer research. The project has already generated exciting new discoveries for retinoblastoma and leukemia, and more are on the horizon.

The discoveries and groundbreaking work of St. Jude in its first 50 years have made for a remarkable journey—from one man’s vision to one of the leading pediatric cancer centers in the world. But St. Jude always has its eye on the future and the exciting possibilities that await the doctors, scientists, families and children of a new generation who continue to benefit from Danny’s dream.

 

TWISTER COMBINE FLIES THROUGH CANCER

The Twister Combine will have a 250 mile benefit cancer race on October
20, 2012 from Hugo, Oklahoma.  Proceeds from this race will go to help children battling cancer.

Funds are raised through (1) direct donation, (2) AU banded pigeon racing, and (3) auction.  Anyone and everyone are invited to take part.

To race a combine bird, the bands cost $10 each and will be sold until October 19, shipping day.  Proceeds will be presented on behalf of the winner and the Twister Combine.

If you are a fancier yourself and would like to fly your own birds, please send your birds along with the $10 donation to the Combine.  (At this point in the year, this applies to the 2013 race.)

This year’s auction features 2 footballs signed by the Iowa Barn Stormers arena football team’s NFL potentials.  Donations are provided by event chairman Jerry Smith’s nephew, a past team member.  “We’re trying to get more pigeon racing clubs involved in helping kids in their area.  If we can get clubs to work together, even the $10 donation will help the recipients with gas money,” says Jerry.  He hopes to obtain more items signed by celebrities to auction off for more donation recipients.

For information about this Race, contact:

Jerry Smith Twister Combine President at 620-743-3039.
Send any email correspondence to 
TwisterCombine@gmail.com

http://www.twistercombine.com/

Donations may be sent to:
St. Clair County State Bank 
680 North 2nd 
P.O. Box 539 
Osceola, Missouri 64776

The goal for this year’s benefit is to raise enough to help the families of the following:

MISSOURI – Courtney

This is Courtney.  She will be fifteen in September this year.  She is infatuated with the color pink and Paris’ Eifel Tower.  Her bedroom is covered with the theme:  pink walls, Eifel Tower statues, pictures, jigsaw puzzle, and quilt.  Her two cats are her buddies.  She has done well in cheerleading and gymnastic competitions.  She may not be into boys yet, but she loves Justin Bieber.

Courtney just started her highschool freshman year when she experienced stomach pains and was diagnosed with stage 3 lymphoma.  Treatment is out of state, in Memphis, Tennessee.  Courtney lives in Missouri.  She spent April through July in treatment.  The family now goes back and forth five to six weeks, spends a week, and then comes back for a few days.  This lasts for four treatments.  This session of treatments will continue through mid-September, and then the family will travel back and forth for another month for heavier chemotherapy treatments.  Right now, Courtney is homeschooled to protect her immune system.  Once Courtney is on maintenance treatments, she will be able to go back to school.  Maintenance treatments continue for two or more years.

Courtney’s dad is retired navy and was working full time until the economy forced elimination of his job.  He is currently going to school to retrain, which keeps him away during the day.  Her mom works full time as an accounting clerk.  Courtney’s grandmother takes care of her during the day.  Saying the family’s budget is stretched, would be putting it mildly.

IOWA – Alivia

This is Alivia.  As a typical young girl, she loves to play with Barbies, ride her bike, go camping with her family, and play school.  She also loves sports:  soccer, softball and volleyball. 

This picture was taken when she was a flower girl in a wedding in 2011, one month before she was diagnosed with Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or Ph+ALL for short. While the ALL part of this cancer is very common among children, the Ph+ part is extremely rare. It is most common in adults and most often results in death.

The cure rate among children and a defined treatment is unknown so Alivia is in a clinical study to help children in the future have a "road map" to follow to find a cure.  Alivia’s family lives 100 miles from the hospital where she receives chemotherapy and medication.  She is admitted every three weeks for 5 to 6 days at a time, for three years. 

Disease is an overwhelming challenge in the first place.  In addition to that massive burden, Alivia’s mother can work only part time when possible.  She must care for Alivia at home; as Alivia is unable to be around others during this process due to her lowered immunity.  Needless to say, expenses have grown quickly.

VETS ASSIST VETS

PIGEON AUCTION FOR FISHER HOUSE

A THANK YOU from the organizers ~ 

       Fisher House provides free or low cost lodging to veterans and military families receiving treatment at military medical centers.
       A Fisher House is "a home away from home" for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers. The homes are normally located within walking distance of the treatment facility or have transportation available. There are 56 Fisher Houses located on 22 military installations and 20 VA medical centers. Many more houses are under construction or in design.

The Fisher House Auction was held at the Perth Amboy Racing Pigeon Club on the 27th of November 2011, and it was a HUGE SUCCESS. This was achieved because of an outpouring from the fraternity of the CU, IF, and AU Members, as well as, the Belgian & Dutch Pigeon Fanciers, thereby making this truly an International event. The pigeons that were donated,to say the least, were some of the best I have ever seen in one room; the excellent quality of these pigeons was evident by the high prices attained in the auction. The Co-Chairmen of this event were Eric J. Gioiosa and Stanley Krawiec, both Veterans and the driving force behind this auction/fund raiser for Fisher House.

We had a Super Event Team consisting of Bill Desmarais & his wife Paula, Lynne Earring, Henk Kuylaars, Big Andy Larenzatkis, Val Matteucci, Bill Mitiu, John Panek, Joey Perino, Edie Raia, Fred Smeltzer, and two of the Tyson Corner celebrities—Big Joe (Green) Swint & Vinnie (COACH) Torre, that made this event a great success. The Perth Amboy Club generously donated the use of their great clubhouse, in addition to a DOOR PRIZE of a bond for the PAOpen Futurity Race.

Additional generous prize donations included: bags of feed from Baden Feed in Canada, Vinnie Torre of Hoboken NJ, and Mike Bonomo of Staten Island. Also, Top SHELF Premium Wine from the Noble Brothers of California, a custom-made carrier from Mike Brazil of San Luis Obispo, CA, Chocolate Covered Delicacies from Kenny Larrey of Fresno, CA, and Pigeon Watches from Bill Desmarais & his wife Paula. The Desmarais’s also donated and hand-delivered the BIGGEST Live Lobsters you ever saw. Thank you ALL!

A very moving moment was when Bill Desmarais, AU Veterans Affairs Chairman, Vietnam Vet (Nov ‘68–Dec ‘69), Sergeant US MC presented Walter Lesnak (King Lou) 94 Years young, a watch & Fisher House Hero’s Medal in our little tribute to this veteran. He is a true HERO and was awarded in COMBAT the Silver Star, 3 Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart.  Upon him receiving the medal, the standing room only crowd broke into a thunderous applause.

Thanks to all that attended, thanks to the in-house buyers, and also to the on-line bidders on I-Pigeon. 

Eric J. Gioiosa, Linda W. Weiss (Medical Center Director of Albany Stratton VA Medical Center, Albany NY), Stanley Krawiec, Jerry A. Jensen (Manager of Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher House, Albany, NY) presented the check.

In closing, we would also like to give a BIG THANK YOU to Susan Lombard of Daybreak Design, Gene Yoes of the Racing Pigeon Digest, the American Racing Pigeon Union, International Federation of Homing Pigeon Fanciers, 

I-Pigeon and Anthony Sorrentino for their generosity in making this event such an overwhelming success to the tune of a contribution of $24,148.50 to the Fisher House of Albany, NY.

Thank you,

Stanley Krawiec & Eric J. Gioiosa

TWISTER COMBINE PIGEON FESTIVAL

March 10, 2012 

at the Vernon County Fairgrounds in Nevada, Missouri

The meet and greet will be a chance for all to gain and share knowledge on pigeon racing. The all breed show will be hosted by Shawn Pryer. Anyone can enter and entries

will be taken until 9:30. The racing/diploma bird show will take entries until 10:45 for $3 an entry and trophies will be awarded. 

Dinner will be served at noon. We ask that you bring a covered dish for a potluck meal. After the 1:00 bird release we will begin the auction. Any club can participate in the auction. The auction will start with birds donated by fanciers to support the Flight for the Fight Race in the fall. After those birds and items are sold each club will have their own birds and items to auction off. Those items and birds will benefit their own club.

The Twister combine (MWRPC, Sac-Osage and OIL groups) is having their first annual Flight for the Fight event. This year the AU is supporting the fight against breast cancer by it’s pink bands. The Twister Combine will have a benefit cancer race on October 20th, 2012 from Greensburg, Kansas, a 250 mile race.

The proceeds from this race will go to a child in our local area who is fighting a battle with cancer.  The bands will cost $10 and will be sold until October 19th, which is shipping day. The person who purchased the band on the winning bird will have their name, on behalf of the Twister Combine, on a check that will be presented to the recipient.

If you are a fancier yourself and would like to fly your own bird, please send your bird along with $10 to a member of the Twister Combine.  A member can be found by calling Jerry Smith, Twister Combine President, at 620.743.3039. 

We are having a pot luck dinner with bird show, auction and bird release on March 10, 2012 at the Vernon County Fairgrounds in Nevada, Missouri.  Come join us!

RACE AGAINST BREAST CANCER

FOR OUR VETERANS

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS

Woodinville Lions Host Fall Flight for Sight Pigeon race.

Woodinville Lions Flight for Sight hosted the Puget Sound Futurity race this past weekend, turning the final race of the season into a community fundraiser as well as a fun event. Two hundred and thirty birds competed from 25 regional lofts with one hundred and eighty eight birds were sponsored with a $5.00 donation for the Lions clubs local Sight and hearing programs.

The birds were released Saturday, September 26th. at 8:00 am from Tri-cities, OR, a distance of 355 miles from Woodinville. The winning bird, a Blue hen, sponsored by Kelly-Power-Ellis, was clocked at 2:17:08 PM at the loft of 90 year old Elwin Anderson of Everett. The pigeon, having flown the 347 miles distance in just over 6 hours, at an average speed of 1621.781 YPM, (Yards per minute), just over 55 MPH!

The second place bird, sponsored by Mike Strevel of Clinton, WA which clocked at 2:23:33 flying a distance of 348 miles, and at a speed of 1600.080 YPM.

Of the 230 birds sent, 85 made the flight in less than 7 hours to finish in the points.

Five regional racing pigeon clubs, Sno-King; Greater Seattle; Everett, Stilly; and the Top Gun clubs supplied birds for the race.

The Flight for Sight raised $940.00, with proceeds going to the Woodinville Lions club’s Sight and Hearing program, which will be used locally to provide glasses, eye exams and hearing aids to those who otherwise would not be able to afford them. The lions also accept old glasses and hearing aids at recycling locations at the Woodinville/cottage Lake Library; Kingsgate Library; Woodinville Pharmacy, Low Vision Clinic, Redwood Eye Clinic or at the Woodinville Lions Club located across for Leoita Jr. High at 19008 168th Ave. NE

For more information regarding the Woodinville Lions club or the Flight for Sight race contact Herb Cartmell at 425-486-4725 or visit their website at http://woodinvillewa.lionwap.org

FLIGHT FOR SIGHT

Woodinville Weekly staff writes:

The Woodinville Lions Club, in conjunction with the Sno-King Racing Pigeon Club, will hold another Flight for Sight Race to benefit local Lions sight and hearing programs, which provide eye care, glasses and hearing aids for those needing assistance. "All the money raised stays right in the Woodinville area to serve our community," said Herb Cartmell, the club’s president.

The race will be held Sept. 25 with the sponsored birds being released from Sutherlin, Ore., to fly back to their home lofts in the Seattle area.

"Each bird carries a small microchip band on its legs that will register the exact time the bird returns home," Cartmell continued. "A GPS reading is taken from the release site and applied against each participant’s loft for distance. Once you have the time on the wing, you can divide it into the distance to each loft to arrive at a yards per minute in speed. Of course, the fastest speed wins."

"On average, the birds can fly between 42 and 55 MPH in normal conditions. Sutherlin is 300 air miles from Woodinville," Cartmell explained.

The cost of sponsoring a bird is a $5 donation and the birds will be randomly matched with their sponsor on the night before shipping.

The sponsor with the winning bird will receive a $300 cash prize.

Last year the Woodinville Lions provided eye exams and glasses to nine individuals and a set of hearing aids.

The Woodinville Lions recently expanded their service area to include Duvall and Kenmore.

Anyone interested in sponsoring a bird in the Flight for Sight races, their sight and hearing programs, or in joining the Woodinville Lions Club is asked to contact Herb Cartmell at (425) 318-9477 or visit with Web site at http://www.woodinvillewa.lionwap.org.

MESSAGE DELIVERED!

The Rock River Valley Racing Pigeon Club's FAMILY FUN DAY AND PIGEON EXTRAVAGANZA  yielded a message to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn.  Event attendees were invited to send messages in a unique family entertainment day that included a fishing tournament for the kids, prizes, lunch, an animal menagerie for kids, displays from police, fire and military personnel, and much more.

Once the message carrying pigeon arrived at his home loft, he was transported to the Governor's office to deliver the notes, making a super ending to a great event!

Above, Chad Compton is shown approaching the Governor's office.

Shown here, with messages delivered, are Chad Compton, Sara Moore (Gov. Quinn's Assistant), and Irvin Force.