Riding for Roses

The time has come to start making serious efforts on fundraising. I looked at the calendar yesterday and it scared me. The math is simple. There are basically one hundred days left until the fund raising deadline and we had just under $916.13 the minimum goal of $15,000, which is the Polka Dot Jersey fundraising level and the mininum to get into the private ride. That’s $140.84 per day. Every day. All summer. The stretch goal is $25,000, which is the Yellow Jersey fundraising level. That’s $240.84 per day. Every day. All summer.

We have a couple irons in the fire, but nothing big. Spencer has been doing a great job of talking to people and passing out wrist bands. He’s secured a bunch of promises for small donations and one $500 donation. We hope many of those will actually get mailed. We are also having a National Cancer Survivors Day event on June 5 at Live Oak Unitartian Universalist Church in Cedar Park, TX, just outside of Austin at 3315 El Salido Parkway, one block off 620 near Anderson Mill Rd. This event is primarily a celebration for cancer survivors, but we will have LAF donations forms available at an information table.

So, yesterday, I lit up my email network a little bit. When I emailed a mailing list for former employees of Concero (where I worked back when it was called Pencom Software and then PSW Technologies, but the PSW didn’t stand for anything, really) about the Lance event on Thursday (where a former Concero/PSW person won the trip for two to the Tour de France, it occurred to me to email there about fundraising. That drew a little bit of response. So far, two people have donated a total of $100. In a few weeks, I’m going to my 25 year prep school reunion at Deerfield Academy so I emailed out to the fellow classmates whose email addesses I have. So far, that netted another $100. Next I started going through my address book and selected a semi-random sample of contacts. So far, that has netted another $100. So, I’ve managed in the last two days to raise $300, about one third what we’ve gotten in the last six months. Now all I have to do is keep that up for the next 98 days.

Here’s what I said in the last email:

On October 15, 2004, I left my position as a Senior Member Technical Staff at Advanced Micro Devices to spend more time with my sons, Jacob and Spencer, and consider what path to take with my career. Little did I know how much I’d need to focus on my sons, particularly Spencer.

I’ve been a supporter of the Lance Armstrong Foundation since shortly after it was founded. For me it was an obvious charity. I was a fan of Lance Armstrong since he became World Champion, watched in agony as he withdrew from the Tour de France in 1996, and watched in shock as he announced his battle with cancer. As a resident of Austin, TX, Lance is stuff of local legend. The Foundation’s cornerstone charity event, the Ride for the Roses, was originally practically in my backyard, riding through the challenging Texas Hill Country. More recently, they’ve moved the ride just east of Austin out of the hills where casual cyclists could participate with somewhat less agony. They’ve added some shorter routes to make the ride accessible to non-cyclists and cancer survivors. They also now have slightly more than one case of PowerAde and a single Walmart First Aid kit at the rest stops. Cancer has always been a significant part of my life. My grandfather died from colon cancer. My mother is a breast cancer survivor. My father died from multiple myeloma. My mother-in-law was a breast cancer survivor for 2 years and passed away in December, 2004, from liver and lung metastases. In short, the Lance Armstrong Foundation resonates with me on many levels.

In 2004, I raised slightly over $5000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and on October 15 attended the “Peloton Appreciation Dinner” to celebrate that accomplishment. While I was meeting Robin Williams and listening in agony to Lance sing a duet with Sheryl Crow (Lance has many talents, but singing is not among them), my son Spencer came down with a fever. Seven days later, on October 22, 2004, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and immediately began chemotherapy in the hospital. As cancers go, ALL is not a horrible one to get. In the absence central nervous system cancer and certain specific genetic mutations, the prognosis is an 86% five year recurrence free survival rate. The treatment is long (3 years and 2 months of chemotherapy for boys; leukemia tends to hide in the gonads and it’s harder to get it completely out of the testicles), but not as harsh as for many cancers. Cancer treatment has made amazing progress. Before 1948, leukemia was a death sentence with basically 100% mortality within months of diagnosis. Treatment improvements since then have been astounding.

Friends rallied around us immediately, helping with child care and transportation for Rachel (who is currently not able to drive). I was able to stay in the hospital with Spencer for the four days he was there to begin his induction therapy. I made two deals with Spencer. The first deal was that I would shave my head when his hair began to fall out from chemotherapy. This happened on November 9. The second deal was that we would ride the 25 mile route in the Ride for the Roses together in 2005 and I would help Spencer raise enough money to get him into the private ride with Lance Armstrong. Spencer is preparing for a career as a diplomat and views everything as a negotiation, and no negotiation is ever fully closed. He amended the shaving agreement to include me staying bald until his hair grows fully back. He amended the Ride for the Roses agreement to include the 40 mile ride (“if my butt doesn’t hurt and we stop at every rest stop”) and raising enough money for the Peloton Project Yellow Jersey award (they raised the amount for this award to $25,000 of fundraising).

Since June of last year, Spencer has been wearing liveStrong wrist bands, those little yellow rubber wrist bands that started the wrist band craze just over a year ago. He started with one that I bought for him because of the cancer survivors in my family. Within a day, he got $3 out of his piggy bank and asked me to get more so he could wear one on each limb. Since his diagnosis, he’s gone a bit crazy and often wears a dozen or more wrist bands. His personal record is 39 liveStrong wrist bands (including one on each ankle and the rest on his arms) which got him props from Lance at a local fundraising event. The number of wrist bands he wears varies frequently since he gives them away to others to raise awareness and to say “thank you” for donations.

This year, the Ride for the Roses weekend is October 21-23. On October 22, Spencer’s one year diagnosis anniversary, they have a kids’ event down at Zilker park where we will be celebrating. The next day, we will hook up the trail-a-bike to my hybrid bicycle and crank out 25 (or is that 40?) miles together and cross the finish line to collect a single yellow rose for Spencer.

We need your support to do this. I know cancer has touched many of your lives as well. Cancer treatment is constantly improving and with those improvements we are creating a generation filled with cancer survivors. Cancer survivorship issues go beyond the medicine of treating the disease. Cancer can cause huge financial, emotional, and long term health issues. The impact of cancer does not end with the end of chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery. Long term affects abound. There is risk of recurrence or relapse of the original cancer. Certain cancer treatments increase the likelihood of getting a second (different) cancer later in life. Some treatments (notably for Spencer, the treatments for childhood leukemia) can cause long term cognitive effects.

Please join me in support the Lance Armstrong Foundation in their fight to support cancer survivors.

How can you help?

1. Donate online now via my redirector link. This will redirect you to the LAF web site (hosted by Kintera) to make a donation (using their secure web pages) in Spencer’s name.
2. If you don’t want to donate online, download a PDF of the form and be sure to fill in “Spencer Sartin” for the rider name and 200254831 for the rider number.

However you donate, please check if your employer has gift matching and take appropriate action to get them to match your gift.

After you donate, post a comment to let me know if you want us to wear a bib tag (a piece of paper that hangs on the back of our cycling jerseys) in honor of a cancer survivor or in memory of a loved one who had cancer.

Why the LAF?

The Lance Armstrong Foundation supports cancer survivors through information and funding of national and local cancer survivor organizations. Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, the LAF believes that in the battle with cancer unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything. From the moment of diagnosis, the LAF provides the practical information and tools people living with cancer need to live strong.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for your support.