I have answered the call to be a hero! I'm having my head shaved to stand in solidarity with kids fighting cancer, but more importantly, to raise money to find cures. Please support me with a donation to the St. Baldrick's Foundation. This volunteer-driven charity funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U. S. government. Your gift will give hope to infants, children, teens and young adults fighting childhood cancers. So when I ask for your support, I'm really asking you to support these kids. Thank you! Click "Make a donation" to give online, or donate by phone or mail.
OK, that was the foundations words above. I am no hero. I’m just a simple ordinary man who believes that it’s his time to pay it forward before it's.......my time.
I need sponsors in the form of monetary donations. You can give me cash or checks in person, or use a credit or debit card right on this site. If you're reading this, you've found my page here on www.stbaldricks.com so just find the donation icon to give what you can. Every single penny I raise will be going to help children with Cancer. I am not keeping a dime of this money. I will turn it all over to the St. Baldricks foundation. For those who know me from Poker, I could just run another charity tournament, but not this time. This time I am taking a stand. I AM STANDING UP AGAINST CANCER!
I am going to shave my head for this, so I need everyone reading this to pony up the dough for the children living with Cancer. Take a moment, stop whatever you're doing and think about these questions :
What would you do if it were your own child?
How would you handle it?
Could you afford it Financially?
Mentally?
Physically?
What will you do when your insurance reaches its yearly cap?
Do you even have insurance?
These are the tough questions many children and their families have to answer each and every day. They're not worried about gas prices. They had to sell their car and find rides from friends. They needed the money for medical bills. They don't get to go to the Amusement Park. They won't get to see the next big movie at the theater, but hope they will still be alive when it makes it on the local network channels. No, they don't have cable or satellite, that got turned off years ago. Yet they are all too proud to let you know what they've given up to help their child fight. What can you give up? How about that cup of coffee at Starbucks? About $5? Give up one cup a week for a year and you could donate $260 to a great cause. Cancer knows no boundaries, no ideology, no one is immune to its deadly rampage. Rich or poor, white or black, young or old, it does not matter.
Cancer not only take its toll financially, it takes and even worse toll physically and mentally. I've personally witnessed what Cancer can do, to a person, to a family, to a friend. In the days and years to come, many of us will come face to face with this demon and the war will begin anew. Some will win the battle, but sadly, many will not.
In 2011, two amazing people very close and dear to me, lost their heroic battles with Cancer. They fought hard and they never gave up, but in the end, their bodies, weak; wary, pale, and brittle are left unable to fight any longer. However, we can find solace in knowing their spirits kept fighting and were never conquered. For those who know us, you may have already heard, my wife,Stacy, lost her mother, Cynthia Deschenes, to Cancer this past September. We also lost my father's boss and family friend,Rick Wilson, during the last World Poker Tour Amateur Championship in April 2011. So if we seemed “down” by the end of the trip, now you know why. Over the past few months we have been dealing with their loss, which only prolongs the pain.
With that said, while this fundraiser has been created with the purpose of helping children with Cancer, I am dedicating the shaving of my head to Mr. Rick Wilson, to his family, friends, loved and those who worked with him. I also dedicate the day to my Mother in Law, Mrs. Cynthia Deschenes and to those she left behind, her Husband Jean Claude, her daughter Stacy Hustek and to all of her other family and friends as well. I love and miss you both dearly and I will never forget you. I prayed every night that I could have taken this disease from you. To take away the pain and suffering you had to endure during your relentless battle with a faceless enemy. In a strange way, I guess my prayers were answered. You are at peace now, feeling no pain, the agony finally over. In its place Stacy and I are in pain, we grieve your loss and we struggle to help the others left behind. In time, I will see you all again on the other side. Can you do me a favor and put in a good word with the Big Guy for me up there? All joking aside, I am both humbled and honored to have played a small part of your lives, though I wish it could have been longer. It will be a privilege to me to shave my head in your honor.
Their loss reminds me, we only get to take so many laps around that big ‘ole orange ball burning high in the sky above us. Before you know it, your journey on this wild and crazy road we call life will be over. We need to strive to make each lap count. How do you want to be remembered? Just another indifferent person, or as someone that made a difference?!?! Live life. Take chances. Tell the truth. Date someone totally wrong for you. Say no. Say yes. Spend all your cash! Fall in love. Get to know someone random. Be random. Say I love you. Sing out loud. Laugh at a stupid joke. Cry. Get revenge. Apologize. Tell someone how much they mean to you. Tell the asshole what you feel. Let someone know what they're missing. Laugh until your stomach hurts. Stomp in a puddle. Be profound. Help a stranger. Drive. Get lost. Take your time finding your way back. Learn something new. Create your own ‘bucket list.’ As the great Theodore Roosevelt said, “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” Live, Laugh, Love. YOU still have that chance. Many of the children I am fighting for will never get that chance. I don’t know any of these children. I hope I may meet them, but I pray I won’t. I know that makes no sense, but having seen what it can do to an adult, I don’t know if I could handle seeing a child dealing with Cancer. Those children could very well never see tomorrow. Close your eyes and try to remember the last thing you saw. I hope it was something good. Without our help, the cold white ceiling of their hospital room might he last thing they ever get to see. Never forget what you say, it may be the last thing uttered from your lips. Never go to bed Angry. Never forget what you do, for those actions could be your last. How do you want to be remembered? Live every day like it's your last. There is a quote I've come to love, "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift - that's why they call it the present - RW Emerson" It's our turn to continue the fight to end Cancer.
Cynthia and Rick’s passing has been hard on all of us. I was going to write more, but I am having a hard time saying anymore without breaking down. So I will leave with this. Please dig deep. I know times are hard. The economy is horrible, gas is ridiculous and many of us are unemployed and facing foreclosure. I will be at Fado Irish Pub in Atlanta on March 16th. at 5 PM for the shaving!
I've answered the call to be a hero! I'm having my head shaved to stand in solidarity with kids fighting cancer, but more importantly, to raise money to find cures. Please support me with a donation to the St. Baldrick's Foundation. This volunteer-driven charity funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U. S. government. Your gift will give hope to infants, children, teens and young adults fighting childhood cancers. So when I ask for your support, I'm really asking you to support these kids. Thank you! Click "Make a donation" to give online, or donate by phone or mail.
Thanks for your understanding and your continued generosity!
Frank
P.S.
If you wish to join me in this act of solidarity, I will allow all of my WPTAPL Members who come with me on 3/16/12 and have their heads shaved, to enter my online tournament for the chance to win the opportunity to travel with me on the upcoming trip to Jacksonville for the WPT Final Table Tournament Taping on 5/2/12. So again, PLEASE dig deep. I have run many charity tournaments for anyone that needed the help. I love to do those, but rarely have I asked for anyone to donate to me personally so I could help out a cause that's important to me much less for someone I don't even know. If you can't afford it right now, I understand. In that case please consider joining me and having your head shaved as well!! Look at it this way, it's a free haircut!! LOL and maybe I’ll throw a couple free roll tokens your way as a thank you, and then you could donate your winnings as well! Hey, it’s a thought right?
