Hello Friends and Family!

I’m writing again to seek your support for St. Baldrick’s, a charity whose sole purpose is to fund research intended to solve the insidious problem of children’s cancer. Although I started participating in this fundraising event because one of my colleagues started it running, I have continued my participation because I believe this charity has found a specific area of need and it has targeted it efforts to meet that need. A few facts.

Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease past infancy for U.S. children.(1) We put them in car seats, make them wear helmets when they ride bikes, and try to get them to eat their vegetables. These are the steps we take to prevent accidents and to support their health. We can also take steps to find better and better cures for childhood cancer, and St. Baldrick’s is doing that.

Because of the treatments they had as kids, by the time they’re in their 30s or 40s, more than 95% of childhood cancer survivors will have a chronic health problem and 80% will have severe or life-threatening conditions. (2) So even when childhood cancer is beaten back, the current treatments can cause future health problems for the cancer-free kids. And when the average age of a child diagnosed with cancer is 6 years old, there is a lot of future in which these problems can manifest themselves. (2)

St. Baldrick’s financial efficiency is good. Their administrative costs are 3%, and their fundraising costs are 25%. And the remaining 72% goes to fund research, only research. (3) I am impressed with this charity, and given that I help regulate charitable organizations in Connecticut, I have a bit of perspective on this issue. I contribute regularly to several charities, but this is the only one I fundraise for. I encourage you to take a look at St. Baldrick’s website to see more information on this cause and St. Baldrick’s approach to helping. https://www.stbaldricks.org/.

I also encourage you to visit my page at St. Baldrick’s and donate to the cause. https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/977502/2018. This is the fourth year of our fundraising for St. Baldricks, and we are hoping to reach $200,000 total by the end of this year. Please help us reach this goal.

Oh, I forgot to mention, as an incentive to your donating to St. Baldrick’s, I will shave my head this Sunday, April 8th, at 3:00 PM. I know, I know – how will you be able to tell if I actually go through with having my head shaved? Will there actually be a difference? Well, I will take before and after close-ups to show my commitment. (I appreciate that shaving my head is not much of a sacrifice on my part, but hey, I’m going to work with what I have!)

Thank you for considering a donation to St. Baldrick’s!

(1) https://www.stjude.org/treatment/pediatric-oncology/childhood-cancer-facts.html.

(2) https://www.stbaldricks.org/blog/post/childhood-cancer-facts-10-things-you-should-know.

(3) https://www.stbaldricks.org/financials.