September is winding down in a couple days, and with it, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This year marks our 7th annual fundraiser for St. Jude, and as of this writing, we’re sitting just shy of $640,000 raised this year, which is incredible. I know it’s rough out there right now, which makes this number all the more meaningful to me this year.
But there’s still time to give! We’re going to shut down the campaign a week from today, on October 6th. We’ve learned that some employee-matching gifts take a little extra time to clear, so if you’re working with your employer on having them match a gift, now’s the time to follow up! This is a great way to see your money do even more good in the world.
When you walk into the ALSAC building on St. Jude’s campus, the wall you see behind the check-in desk always catches my attention:
That quote is from St. Jude founder Danny Thomas, and perfectly encapsulates how I think about Relay’s fundraising efforts for the hospital.
I’m not a scientist, nurse, researcher, child psychologist, doctor, or social worker. I don’t know how chemo interacts with cancer cells, or how to build a microscope to do things no microscope has ever done. I can’t sequence DNA, read an MRI, or work in a pharmacy.
What I can do is tell my story and use my platform to share the wonderful news of a place where kids with cancer and other catastrophic diseases receive the best care in the world.
At St. Jude, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay. From the moment in 2009 when Josiah was diagnosed with a brain tumor to a checkup he had two weeks ago, I have never been billed by St. Jude.
That is a true kindness, made possible by donors around the world.
St. Jude is expanding its mission worldwide, so kids who never step foot on St. Jude’s campus benefit from the research done there. St. Jude is shipping medication and providing training to doctors around the world, and shares it research freely.
Through fundraisers like this, we become part of that work. We work for the good, and by doing so, do the good. Please join us in our final push for this year’s campaign, in doing the most good we possibly can.